MMA Fighting - BTL | Jon Jones' Message To Tom Aspinall, Maycee Barber Returns, Belal Muhammad Speaks

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Jon Jones still hasn't put pen to paper for a fight with Tom Aspinall, but that certainly hasn't stopped the UFC great from throwing little jabs at Aspinall on the internet. On Friday, Jones told Aspinall to "shut your mouth and do what your told," but what does that actually mean? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel answers your questions on the latest with Jones vs. Aspinall, and if there's any positive thoughts in regards to confidence the fight gets made by Dana White and the brass. Additionally, questions may include UFC Vegas 107 headlined by Erin Blanchfield facing the returning Maycee Barber in a pivotal women's flyweight bout, the stakes in the contest, Mateusz Gamrot facing Ludovit Klein in the co-main event, B.J. Penn's troubles with the law, Belal Muhammad breaking his silence on his UFC 315 title loss to Jack Della Maddalena, and more! Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and E. Casey Leydon as they answer your questions and discuss the biggest topics in the sport. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow E. Casey Leydon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@ekc⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is Between the Links. And now your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all.

Hope you're all having a fantastic week. Thank you for joining us. Q&A edition of the show. We had some scheduling stuff mixed around, so we decided, Let's just have some fun with the MA fighting community. And joining me to answer your questions and discuss this wacky world of mixed martial arts,

producer extraordinaire, the baddestash in all of MMA, dare I say, maybe the best shooter of golf content in the world today, the one and only E. Casey Leiden, where is he? There he is. What's up, buddy? Hey, good to be here. How's my face look?

I took a little, I took it. On Memorial Day, I went sparring and got beat up a bit. So I got no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So a little puffy on this side, but I got to work on my defense, you know, but I'm good, I'm good. Let's talk mixed martial arts. Mixed martial arts. M.M.A. All right.

Well, it's been kind of a weird time because we're not coming off of a card that happened the previous week. We do have a apex card. coming up on Saturday with a high-stakes main event between Macy Barber and Aaron Blanchfield. I love the Matush-Gamrott-Ludvic Klein fight. Not a whole bunch else to love on this card after that. I mean, the Macy Chess on, Kellen Vieira fights relevant and matters.

But, yeah, Apex card and MMA. Yeah, it's Jordan. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, yeah. Yeah, it's a card. It's a card that's happening. It's literally a card. Yeah. It is a card that is happening and we will watch.

I'm on Tapology right now and the fight poster. Dude, Blanchfield versus Barb. Dude. They didn't even try that poster like the way the Texas laid out. It's insane. Dude, that is. That's tough scenes. That's so bad.

just take that part of the middle out and just leave it as is that's literally maybe the worst graphic design I've ever seen on a on a fight poster not even a UFC poster that is check it out typology uh the fight poster that it's official fight poster it is wild tough scenes up there in uh graphic design land for the UFC that was just uh all right we got a an is about to go live on instagram just get this done in the next 10 minutes. All right.

But yeah, great main event. Yeah, you should be. Good co-main. Yeah, good co-go-go. You like the go-main? I mean, Gamrod, I mean, I do. This is the fight for Gamrod or is this just a fight that's interesting?

It's interesting. It's not the fight for Gamrod, but I spoke with Mr. Gamrod yesterday, as a matter of fact. So that interview will be coming soon, 10M8.com, great website. He explains why he took this fight. And basically it's just it's either wait for a ranked guy or just fight and stay active.

And I want to stay active. So they offered me Klein and I took it. And here we are. Yeah. He finds on seven in a row, man. Wow. That's a sneaky seven. May I let me look at that.

He's not ranks, right? Is he ranked on any ones? Roosevelt Roberts. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's been out for it. I mean, the winds aren't. spectacular. Devante Smith was a good win at the time.

Mason Jones obviously aged pretty decently. He had the draw with Jai Herbert. The Ignacio Baja Baja Mondays' win is aged beautifully. And then, you know, A.J. Cunningham, you're supposed to fight Joel Alvarez on that card. And then gets A.J. Cunningham on a few days notice beats Tiago Moises. That's a good win. Yeah. And then Roosevelt Roberts, but you were supposed to fight somebody else.

So, yeah. Yeah. Sneak and good win streak. Yeah, and I had a lot of high expectations for Klein when he originally got signed with the promotion. Very exciting guy. But, you know, had his ups and downs. But, yeah, it's a fight. It's a good fight.

It's a good fight. It's a good high level. Too good, too good lightweight. So it's good commitment. Okay, you're right. You're right. Good main event. That's a good fight.

That's a good fight. I guess I guess Gamrod is just taking a big, when you're one of those guys to say, I don't turn down fights. Well, this is what happens if you don't turn down. you get you fight guys way behind you so it's um it's a high risk high risks fight for gamma where even if he looks great he pretty much stays in the same spot you know probably yeah yeah but he is rank seven so it's not a bad place to be yeah okay cool uh yeah let's get your questions do do do all right oops oh actually people have been okay actually actually i don't know anything about this uh lazy bed

mike casey whoever's in charge on the tech side i'm desperately begging you all to update the channel member emojis you are barking up the wrong tree i don't even know what that is so i should probably like learn more about freaking yeah yeah i need to learn more to you okay you know what lazy bed all right are they like m m m m m mhm a hour ones it's got to be right yeah i think so yeah i think that i think those guys started it and then we never we never really kind of took over or fixed it so my my bad but thank you for thank you for bringing that up at least bit we will take a look at it uh should someone do a wellness check on dana i feel like he's not been around for a while hashtag strip john jones we have not heard from dana in a minute but dana's busy

his bull is doing bull things i believe he's a new owner of first of uh the form energy drink first form or whatever he's been plugging that up pretty hard. So guys, we've been telling you for four years. He is 50-50 in on the UFC right now. He is there in spirit. He is there in name and then shows up once in a while when he needs to.

So yeah, that's just who he is right now. Yeah, I mean, it's really, for MMA fans who kind of came in with the last like four or five years, man, I wish you could go back like a decade ago and see

and just understand how much media, how much more of Dana White we used to get. Like, it is wild. Like, the, like, it was, like, too much Dana White back then. And now we're like, it's just, you know, Instagram videos of announcements and occasional knelt boys videos. It's such, like, a different place now in terms of what Dana White gives the media and the fans. It's very odd.

But it's a new world. It's a new world in the UFC world. Yeah. Yep. But again, they're making so much money. It doesn't even matter. They don't even have to try. Yeah.

Yeah, it's not like, yeah, we're like, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Does the UFC need, are we, are we there yet? We've kind of always suspected that, but do they need Dana White? Do they need like that, no, but that voice that like, I'm going, I'm up here on the front of the press conference. I'm going to tell you to why to watch this, why to watch this, why to watch. this fight. Is that even necessary for it's like, do they need a replacement for Dana or is the

UFC just the UFC now? Like, like you don't need like the NFL commissioner going, guys, you got to watch the Super Bowl. You know what? You know what I mean? I'm trying to. Does the UFC even need that anymore? No, they haven't needed that in forever.

Like John Anick's the one who hosts most of the pre-fight press conferences anyways. So it's not like Dana's at all of them. He'll, if they have a Thursday press conference, Dana Wade is like never. there. But if they do one of those, hey, we have a, there's a pay for you coming up two months later, we're doing a press conference before ceremonial weigh-ins. Data will be there for that because he's there for ceremonial weigh-ins. So he'll just post that one and be fine with it. And he goes and does the post-fight presser and that's it. Like, it's good for us having Dana at these post-fight press conferences because Danny usually provides information. Dave Shaw does not. But we can usually

figure out a lot of this information on our own without Dana. I would say 50, 60% of the announcements he makes. We've already written up for three weeks at our website or I've already talked about. Like, not a lot of the stuff he says is breaking news, so we're able to get that stuff. He is important for growing the fan base, I guess, trying to get some new people to watch because of his friendships, his alliances, if you will. And he's obviously good for business in terms of sponsorships and things of that nature. But in terms of like him being the promoter, no, they haven't needed him in five years.

They haven't needed him since like the pandemic. He was obviously very crucial because he was all over the place. But from like 20, once the fans are back in, once they got over everything and fans could come back in the buildings, they haven't. They haven't really needed him since then. since that was a conversation that came up after the new year's eve incident when that video went crazy and all that is just like should the ufc get rid of them and for us it was just like if you sat out for six months like would we even would it matter would it make any difference no it really wouldn't so yeah it would be weird for a while but the ufc is such a well-oiled machine

right now all they have to do is put out a fight poster and put tickets on sale and those will sell whether Dana is making announcements or not that just that's just where they're at right now they cannot be stopped so they don't need him right now that's how red hot they are do is that i does do do other promotions does pfl does ksw does the cage warriors or whatever do they need a dana white or has the i don't know has the mma fan base kind of moved past the whole guy yelling at you to watch fights and why you know what I'm trying to say I'm just kind of wondering the whole the whole concept of a Dana white as far as yeah yeah I love Martin Lewandowski I think KSW has been just top notch through all of this but they also know who they are when you get at Nettie Hall marius Puginowski like the whole world's going to talk about it and when you don't you still put on incredible fights at the hardcore fans will watch and they cater to a specific audience and they give them exactly what they want every single event. That's why everybody loves KSW. That's why they continue to grow year

after year. That's why they're able to sell out 80,000 seat stadiums once every so often when they do these big stadium shows. Like they do a terrific job. PFL, I mean, it wouldn't hurt to have somebody be like, hey, watch these fights. You have Don Davis, who has become sort of the business mind. It's great to talk to him when he comes on these things to answer questions to the best of his ability. But they have, it's just weird the way they're doing it right now

because they have Jonathan Coachman as the face of the organization, but he's also like their pre-fight host for everything. He does all the interviews like before the fights. It's super weird for him to be like the face of the company, but he's also like doing all the interviews. interviews. Like you can't, you can't wear so many hats. If you're going to be the face of the company, if you're going to be the promoter, if you will. And I know coach probably doesn't look at himself as like the promoter, but that is essentially the position they have put him in. He's doing

the post-fight press conferences. He's answering questions from the media. So let him focus on that. Like, it's just weird having him take taking him that seriously in that role when he's doing like five other things. It's, I don't know. I don't know. I guess we've kind of turned the page a little bit, but I think you need someone there to be able to talk about stuff and fall out aftermath. Like not having Dana at the 315 press conference was ridiculous. Like that's, that was crazy with so many questions, even just throw Anik up there. I don't care. Danick at least like has things to say about it. He just called it. Bring DC up there. That's cool. Yeah. That would great.

Yeah. You could have brought Cruz up there. Like anybody who could talk about what happened from a different perspective. Like that shit's fun. Like we love hearing about that. What do you think is going to happen? And they will answer that in the best possible way. But like we don't even get that anymore.

We get Dave Shaw who's just like, yeah, international business, baby. And doesn't know anything when it comes to that or isn't allowed to say anything. Yeah, just not allowed to say anything. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of makes it boring, but here we are. Yeah. This might just go back to the old press conferences that we did after fight.

Just put everybody on the freaking stage and do it for 30 minutes and call it a day, man. Like, I miss that. We're reverting back to that now, which is like, all right, if you won, get up there. I wish we would. I wish we would revert back to that. And I wish we would revert back to the old media day, too, where you could just get like one-on-one interviews. I missed old media day. Yeah.

Yeah. It was like two hours, including like setup and breakdown. Yeah. And you couldn't get everyone. Like now we get everyone, but everyone has the same thing. That's the problem. Back then, we would have, so say there's 10 fighters. And that hour, maybe if you're lucky, you can get five.

But those are five of your original videos, original content. That's that's just, there's just you and different from the next guy who got the same interview. You maybe ask the same questions, but you're going to get a different answer. So, and, you know, it's just different. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Ross. Yeah.

It's a different sport. Different sport, yeah. Before we jump to the super chats. Oh, I just want to throw this one up. Hey, Dana just announced debut patches on shorts. He's so locked in. No, he did it. Topps announced that, not data.

Wah-waw. Topps made that announcement. I was trying to give one of Danches. All right. Sorry, dude. I can't do it. Nope, no. Oh, geez.

Super chats. Last stand. Could the UFC do a stacked all heavyweight main card today like UFC 146? So what? That's the, just surpassed the 13th anniversary of UFC 146. And the greatest promo they've done. If you watch that promo for the event, it's just unreal.

Like, I hate saying it, but back when the UFC tried, You know, and they made a very good promo for that event. But let's bring up that card. What was it again? You have C what? You have C 146. May 26th, 2012. That's actually a good card.

So, main event. Yeah. Posure is kind of boring. But if you, I'm not going to bring it. Saturdays. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. But it was a great concept. Just all heavyweights and they just sold it as it's big.

And that's cool. It worked. It worked. Main event. Yeah, main event, Junior DeSantis, Frank,

was that the original? Was that the original fight? Oh, no, the original fight was, it was. No, I thought it was supposed to be just,

I'm looking at the canceled facts. Overeign was supposed to be in that card too. That's when Overeign popped. Mere to tie. Was Kane the champion? Oh, maybe, maybe you're right.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember my history. Can't quite. Yeah, there are a lot of, There are a lot of changes to this one. Yeah, to the main car. But it still remained being five fights in the main card,

five heavyweight fights. Dave Pee-Wee Herman was on the main card. Late Shade Donor Zario, the future goat, Steepin Miochich was on that card. Strike Force veteran LeVar Johnson on the main card. Yeah. What would be the,

in a dream world where, you know, we could just, you know what's not going to happen, but what would be your five-fight? main card for all heavyweight pay-per-view. Obviously, we know the main event. We know the main event, yeah. John Jones versus and Clive.

John Jones was Alex Pereira. Yeah, that's right. Okay, so soon we get the main event. Soon we get John Jones, Tom Asper on main event. John is your co-main. I would do Cyril Ghan versus Sergey Pavlovich. Do you like it? I would do

God, it's a thing I'm gonna get, yeah. I would do, I would run back Derek Lewis, Tai Tuivasa, do that again, rematch.

Let's do that on the main card. Not because we want to, but you got to put Martin Tibera on there. Martin Tiber has to be on there someone against somebody just because. He has to be. Talbot. Maldo Cortez Acosta.

Yeah, that sounds about right. It's one of those guys. There's got to be. Yeah. Tie has definitely got to be on that main card. That tie Derek Kills makes more sense. Yeah.

Can we bring back Rebellis to Spain to fight a striker? That would be fine. We'll do Rebellis to Spain versus Chris Barnett. No, I hate that. For Chris Barnett. But at least he would strike. There's like 30, there's like 30 heavyweights on the roster right now. Oh yeah, go.

Maybe 35. Volkov Almeda. Volkov Almeida. Sure. Yeah. We got to have those guys on there. Yeah. And someone else.

I don't know. I don't know. Oh. No, no, no. Bring back Rebellas. Rebellis versus Alex Pereira heavyweight. Oh, shit. that's a fun fight

okay that's a fun silly fight all right there we go got it that's fun and silly yep you've done it all right thank you last stand

that's fun super chat from RS 40 yeah so I guess like the the true answer to the previous question was yes

but we wouldn't be great it wouldn't be like this you know wouldn't have been like Stefan Shroove you know type thing back then what do you think

above Zars comments about the Vulcan fight is yai are getting the shot also is oral by fighting to fec how do you see that fight going to answer your second question yes uh oral by is fighting to feik musayev great sign that is a gun deal i spoke to both sides that is a go that is happening and that is going to be fun as hell um is yaii are getting the shot i don't know um what i so here's what i can tell you here's what i've what i've what i've what I've learned. Mozar and Pico, I don't know.

Like, I see that being reported. I don't know if it's happening or not. I really don't. Would it surprise me from, like, conversations that I've had with people who think they know, but aren't 100% sure? Would not surprise me if that's the fight they make. I stand on the same side I did before. I love that fight.

That fight makes a lot of sense. Mozar wins. He's going to win in an exciting way. And if he loses, he's going to lose big to a guy. that the UFC can develop and turn into somebody pretty popular. So I don't think it hurts them either way. Movesar 1 billion percent shouldn't have to fight Aaron Pico or anybody else at this point. You should be fighting for the belt.

Having said that, all the reports have been, yo, Volk's fighting Yair, on the Mexico card or whatever Noce UFC is. Rumored for Guadalajara, they announced it for Guadalajara. You've obviously, if you guys have been paying attention, you see what's been going on. keep delaying the opening of the arena. They keep canceling events. They keep pushing things back. There are talks about moving the card back to the U.S.

No decision has been made from what I've been told, but they could go back to Vegas and do it again. They could go somewhere else. I don't really know. But they're saying that, well, because it's Doche, you do Volk versus Yair. So I've reached out to some folks and was asked, asked if that was true, if there's any truth to that.

I was told that as of this very moment, reports of that fight being in the works for that card aren't wholly accurate. So don't know what that means. Don't know anything. There is also things that I've seen that Volk is, I think Volk's having another kid around that same time, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense for him to fight.

If his wife is about to give birth to another child, at the same time as that fight would happen. So not saying that that fight isn't being discussed, but I don't think it's being discussed for that particular card right now. So that's what I could say. And it's ridiculous. If they don't give the title fight to Movesar, who should he fight?

Or should he just never fight and do one of those things? I kind of think he asked a fight. Is Pico the right? Because Pico to me is a great fight, but then at the same time, I can see it being twisted around if he defeats Pico going, well, you just defeated an unranked fighter. Why should we give you a title fight? So I was just talking. That's why it's such a tough fight for Mosa. In that sense.

Yeah. And here's the thing that is weird because I, but an hour before we started, I talked to John Anik. You'll see that conversation on the NBA Fighting YouTube channel leading in UFC. And we talked about this. And we're trying to remember a champion. And this is how John said it. I don't remember a champion laying out a red carpet for a challenger like Volcanowski did for Mozar.

And then still Movesar, that challenger doesn't get the fight. Because all Volk's been saying since he won the bell is like, yeah, I want to fight Mozart. He's the undefeated guy. He's the toughest fight in the division. Like, I want to fight that dude. He's the guy. He's the toughest fight in this division for me.

rolls out the red carpet come mozar come fight me for this championship and the ufc is just like no we can make him fight somebody else but again but the ufc has not announced anything uh none of we haven't been able to like fully confirm any of this stuff anyways so i don't know maybe cool our heads will prevail but it's just so weird man all because dana white was pissed off one night in january and didn't know who Mozaa Bloyev was. He got him confused with the different fight on the card. Like, it's just so frustrating. What a dumb world.

What a dumb world. Yeah. How is this? How's this a multi-billion dollar company? And he got like, who. The only guy, Danaewee was the only guy on the planet who thought, who said publicly that Mozzar of Loia versus Arnold now was a boring fight.

Like, what? And I still think he confused it with something else. Crazy. And because of that, this dude's going to have to fight, seven more times where he gets a title fight. I know, I know, I know it would be kind of rude in the sense, but I would love at a press conference where someone just did almost like a more of a man on the street interview of Dana

White, like just hold up pictures of UFC fighters. Name him. Name this guy. Name this guy. And just Dan, like, like, like, top top 15. Insane. Oh, but interesting. Orby, you know, we all love him.

We all love him. He's fighting Tofique. Tofique's last loss, you know who he lost to, his last loss. Top ranked Alexander Shabli. Alexander Shabli. Just how good was Alexander Shobli is what we could be asking. Does that boost? Will you rank Shably higher if Orlbai beats Tofik?

Or if Tofik beats, is there a way Shabli can get ranked higher? Yeah, if Tofi like just rolls through Orrbi, then yeah, Shobli's moving up. Yeah, I just got it. Fair enough. That fight rules. I'm very excited for that fight. By the way, it is in my contract. Sorry, just, for disclosure, it's in my contract.

I have to mention Shabli during every live broadcast. Yes. Ding. The Shabli counter. I get a check. You guys started this. I'm just not ending it. I'm thinking a royal vibe, by the way, but that fight's going to rule.

It's a great fight, great fight. Thank you much, RS40. What else we got here? Oh, a good friend, Forrest Daniels. If Iliate Sporia gets past Charles Alvara, then is Patty the Batty next the next fight to make? Imagine the press conference and face-offs alone. So I'm putting you in the hot seat, Casey.

Iliate Teporia, we're jumping in a time machine. We're fast forwarding to June 29th, year of our Lord, 2025. International Fight Week card comes to an end. Jake Paul just beat Julio Cesar Savage Jr. Crazy times. Are you making Iliate Tuporia versus Patty Pimble next? When's when's when's there's no date for my my my my my judge have JPM right? There's no no date yet.

Um, no they don't make it they Charles just says he waits. I'm sorry. Um, uh, Tuporia was just he'll wait. Now if Islam, what, if Islam wins. If Islam loses at 170, are we going to get. Toporia versus Islam or Topori versus Patty. I bet we'll get Topori versus Patty. This is based on if Islam loses the JDM.

I'm betting if Islam loses, that will be the fight. Toporia versus Patty, which is because that makes so much money and makes so much sense, price fight and wise. I kind of hate it still. But in terms of business and UFC loves to make money, that is the money fight. So that would be my prediction. I say yes regardless. Regardless.

I think Elia, yeah, they'll put Gilly and Patty. You just got to do it now. You got to do it now. You just can't risk it anymore. I would love to see Patty versus Armin or Patty versus Gaichy. Like both those are really interesting fights. God, I don't know. Patty versus Gaichi.

I'm speaking just from making money standpoint. I'm not speaking out of actually who deserves it. Because if a Patty fight, like if they throw Patty in there with, Yeah, if they throw Patty in there with Armin and he loses, then it's just like, okay, then we kind of like lost, the fight kind of lost its sizzle until like Ilya loses. You know what I mean? Or like loses the belt. I mean, there's still heat so you can kind of maybe go back to it.

But some people will be like, oh, what the hell? Dude's coming off of a loss and you're still giving him a title fight. But I think they will try to make that fight. All right. Yeah. And if Teporia, yeah, if you're Teporia, you just is that the fight you want though patty 100% you want it because you feel like he's the more contender or you feel like that's the guy's coming into the most money yes just kind of

yeah yeah it's it's it would be the outside of him fighting Islam for a third belt it would be it's the biggest fight possible for him right now would be him and patty yeah well yeah or fighting JDM. I'm doing this based on if Islam loses. So I still think Patty's bigger than JDM. Yeah, Patty's, yeah. Him and Patty, even if Islam wins. Like, sure, if it really is like, yeah,

vacating the lightweight belt and going to welterweight to fight Islam for a third belt. Like, that's huge, obviously. And that's probably the biggest fight because you can just market it that way. But I don't think Patty's that big or here will jump. But I get it. I mean, just talking about. Patty, yeah. But like with what's in his division and what's like realistic right now, Patty's, like,

Teporia Gaichi's fun. Teporia, Holloway is fun. Like all of these are fun. Like, we just watched Tepore and Holloway. But Teporea gets anybody at lightweight is really, really fun. Tuporia versus Armin's really fun. Like all of these fights are really fun. But Patty is like, that's going to draw the most eyeballs.

No doubt about it. Patty's a rising star. right now. You got to just ride that wave at this point. I'm going to be very hypothetical here. So Islam wins. Islam wins. Tuporia beats Charles. Tuporia goes to Paglia vacates 55 challenges at 170. Who's next for the vacant light, lightweight belt? Fuck, man. Is it Patty versus somebody? Oh, it's Patty versus somebody. It's Patty versus somebody. Okay.

Like if Hollywood wins or Gagey? This is an unpopular opinion. I would do Patty versus Armin. For the, even though. Ooh, okay. Armands, Armin's. No, no, that makes sense. That makes sense.

I don't know if it makes sense. But they will go, they will go Patty versus Gagy. Yeah, I would say so. Patty versus Gachy. And then, yeah, and then we'll see what happens if Holloway beats Dustin. Um, yeah, we'll see. If Oliver, but if Oliver wins, then like,

Oh, if all of it, who knows? Who know, yeah. Dude, that's, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I don't even know. I'm not, I'm not, my brain can't get there if all of our ever wins my do. Imagine this world. Our brain has to get there at some point.

Yeah, at some point, it's gonna, yeah, but if Oliverer wins and JDM wins, just, just, I don't know, it's just, it'd be wild. It'd be wild. Yeah, thank you, everyone. All right, more questions. Here we go. God. Okay, we got to talk about this.

regretfully. Chandler's back on the Conner thing. I just feel bad at this point. Can't wait for January 26. Yes, Chether. Yep, Jether. I feel like Chender's trolling. January 26th.

Could this be, but look, this is a, could this be like TKOs reveal? of Netflix. This is the Netflix fight, the first one. I did. Very WWE of them. Yeah.

Just Connor pointing at the sign, the date. Pointing at the Netflix side. I love that. I don't know, man. Like, I,

I don't know Chandler wants to do a swing rounds So like that would be a very fascinating one to do right now If we can make that happen so I did throw out there like a month ago or so That the Jones Aspenov thing They they literally might be just holding that fight Until the first fight on the new broadcast deal

Maybe I was wrong maybe it was Chandler Connor That they're just holding in their back pocket for that first fight for whatever the new deal is, be it Netflix, be it whoever. So what was the first, so the first fight when they went to Fox, which is a giant deal for everyone watching, the first fight was a free championship fight

on network TV between Kane Velazquez and JDS. Insane, a free main event pay-per-view. I can't imagine doing that now. But we are in a different streaming world now, so if it goes Netflix, who knows? But I do, that's why I feel like the end of the year for the paper views are going to be actually very crappy because what incentives does UFC have unless they're continually signed with ESPN. They stay with ESPN, which I guess everyone has kind of abandoned that ship already. So I think they're going to be like those last three months of the year, they're going to be saving a lot of the really good paper views main events till the first quarter of 2026 for the new broadcast burner.

weird because why you don't need to like you've already proven you can trot anything out there and it'll do well you know what i mean so you can do insane this is this is a new corporate world every quarter has to beat the last quarter unless you're losing if you're not you know just gaining gaining gaining so yeah because they don't need ratings on the espn or espm plus they don't need they don't need ratings they don't need viewership they don't need pay-per-view buys they're already getting that money. Like they get paid to have product to produce on the channels or the

company's networks. JDS K and Velasquez, the big build on Fox. Guys, heavyweight championship for the baddest man of the planet. They like ironed out two hours for this event to happen. And it was over in 64 seconds.

It was like, oh shit, what do we do to fill time now? Yeah. That's a mixed martial arts. Yep. But, yeah, it's power power on that card in the prelims. Benson Henderson, Clay Guida, Dustin Porre was on that card. Ricardo Llamas, Cub Swanson on that card. Was that in Anaheim, right?

Was that, it was that? It's almost there. Okay, yeah. We had an accidental headbutt from Robbie Peralta and McKenzie Samerziere. Bruce Leroy beats Cole Escobedo. Mike Pierce versus Paul Bradley fought on that card. How about that? Damn.

Was it, was it a one fight broadcast? I think so. I'm pretty sure it was. Yeah. Because I remember, what was the co-main event for that event? For the first Fox car.

Anthony Henderson and Clay Guida. Yeah. I mean, that being an awesome. That was a really good fight, right? That was a fight of the night. Yeah. I was fighting a night.

And everyone kept thinking, oh, what a mistake. I imagine if that would have led in to the main event. Then you said, you didn't have just 30 seconds, you know, fighting. Yeah, just, yeah. Yeah, but you have to go.

They learn. They learn. Yeah. Never do a one fight card. One fight broadcast card rather. Not a one fight card. But it's too risky. Might as well throw it.

Yeah, that's, I think that's the only time. I can't actually, that might be the only time any promoter in recent history has done a one fight broadcast card. You know, I don't recall that. Has anyone else done that? Like you pay I can't think of one either Yeah But yeah January 26

I guess we'll have to wait Thank you Adam Oh Oh let's talk about this Love the golf show solid gold Yes very fun Enjoyed it Casey and Esther

Knocked out of the park With the shooting in the production Derek was everything You expected him to be Drops the greatest line, the coldest line ever after driving for his golf ball for 15 minutes. As he cheats again, he hits a shitty-ass shot, and then he kicks the ball onto the fairway, and then he hits the green.

He turns out, looks at the camera, it just calls me a dickhead. Oh, so good. Did you hear that when he said it? Was he too far away when he said that from you? He was so far away. Oh, you didn't hear that. So that was just, he basically said it just himself. I didn't even know he cheated

Like I didn't even know he threw the golf ball And he was right behind me I was looking in the direction I was like how did I fucking miss that Like I didn't know it happened until we watched Like the first cut of it And I was like oh my God I'm like he cheated his ass off

And it like he faked it He had the ball in his hand He goes He knew he hit his ball like like out of the stadium Yeah it left it left Yeah it was in a different different course. Yeah, for sure.

I was like, all right, at best he's in the bunker. And then he's just like, he had the ball. I looked at him and he puts the ball behind his back. And I turn my back and he chucks the ball into the green. I'm like, you son of a bitch. I didn't know for like two weeks. So he was like one of those, he's like one of those card cheats. He has like four aces in his sleeve, but he had like six different golf balls in his pockets.

He was just drop it. Oh, there is a ball in the hole for a. Yeah, yeah. He's just strike. Oh, great shot. Derek had him. That was straight in. Astro camera got it.

Yeah, it went straight in. Oh, my God, man. That whole scene of him driving around, I was dying as I was standing there watching, just drive around trying to find this golf ball. So if you watch it, I cut that down to about two minutes.

It really was about eight, nine minutes he drove around. Yeah, it's almost 10 minutes. Yeah, in the real time, it was about 10 minutes. I cut it down to kind of give the impression. I should know it was about 10 minutes, but I mean, I couldn't just have 10 minutes of him going in circles. I did I didn't want to put that little SpongeBob graphic note, 10 minutes later or whatever. I laughed so hard. That was that was just so much fun, man.

Like, it was it was the best. Shout out to Derek. Shout out to Mike Jackson for making that all happen. Oh, thank you. out to do the clubs of Kingwood and Kingwood Country Club the island course. It was super, yes. Yeah, thank you for Kingwood Country Club. I'm just genuinely, that was really nice of them to let us use their course like that

and just have free rain on their, on such a just a great golf course. I'm not like a golf dude, but it was cool. It was cool being out there. It was like, oh, this is like, I mean, I've been on some like public golf courses. Like, okay, I get it. You know, but this was like, oh, this is nice. It was like, it was legit. Yeah, it's legit.

Mass greens. They're 18th. is that 18th hole is just golf digest I think called it the the hardest finishing hole in the United States okay yeah I was looking at the map I was like this looks like a a one of those almost like creative golf courses on like some video game that you just make it up and like let's just do whatever you want and I's like that's it was it was it was it was it was it was it was it was a par five what was it par five yeah I think legitimate What did you, what did you get on it?

I got like a 12. 12 at least, yeah. Yeah, I think of all the, we had, two balls of water. Yeah, if we had all the Mulligans, I think, yeah, Derek probably had around a 15 or so around there. All the mulligans, Derek shot a 173. Six balls up the tail, like every hole.

But it was like, but it was like, it was awesome. But you went up the first one. You want to go to those. So the next five, he shoots like five drives. like, oh, I take the best one. It was fine. We just stopped like, we stopped like, yeah. We were like, all right.

After I birdied, after I birdied that par five, he was like, we were just done keeping scoring. He was like, goddamn, all right. Yeah, you got straight up birdie. That was impressive. It's just a straight up bird. How many parts did you get? I can't remember of the nine holes.

You got one birdie. Three, two, three. I, yeah, I had like no, even with the Vietnamese. coffee like it was just all adrenaline i was so tired man like i was so tired no sleep for two straight days after all the flight issues and doing it right after a paper a ufc paper view so it was tough but yeah by like the seventh hole i had like nothing left but it was just scramble i was just scrambling the whole time but i think i had like two pars i got a birdie a bunch of bogeys it's a lot of bogey Yeah, okay.

And then... A couple doubles. The six. I had the six on the par three and then whatever we got on 18 was pretty bad. There's not been a name for that, right? Infinity. Infinity bogey. Yeah, it was tough.

It was that 18th hole, Jesus Christ, man. Yeah. But yeah, if you ever watch it, please check it out. It's on our YouTube channel. Don't watch it now. Watch it after we're done of this. swing rounds go watch it tell tell peeps because all i see is like oh everyone's just doing the same content over and over again you want more of this watch it tell people to watch it and

if people watch it then we can do more of them um so there you go because i i can assure you like every fighter on the ufc roster would do this like pretty much everybody would would do it so but we got to show them something we got to show them that the We got to give him an ROI. So let's do it. There you go. But thank you. Shout out to Vee Coffee as we call it here.

Coffee. Yeah, that shit. Woo. I get one Vinnie's coffee a week. On Wednesdays, I go, me and Esther, go to this little faux place down the street. And I get one and I'm like, yeah, let's go. And so do, no, run through walls. Do you feel the same way as I do that?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, but the crash is hard, though. It crashes. Oh, it's brutal. Yeah, I will say that, yeah. It's brutal. And it tastes so good.

You're like, oh, this is so good? And by the third tip, you're like, yeah. There are certain parts, like, in the first cut where I was what, like, I could see how fast I was walking. Like, Derek's walking. Oh, no, no. I was, I'm just moving so quickly from cart to T-box. I was, without disrupting behind the scenes, you know, a little, the thought disrupting you and. Derek's flow, I was trying to slow you down because you were like, let's go.

I'm like, we have a cart and like I got asked, we have two, we have two other cameras going. Like, hold on. Like, just catch up, Casey. Don't worry. I'll leave a little breadcrumbs. Just follow us. Oh my gosh. It was like, yeah, like that's the crazy part about shooting these like people only see the final product, you know, of course, which that's how they're supposed to see.

but like it's it's a journey just to get there and get everything set up you know and just you know and just okay now we're on the clock you know it's just it's fun it's a thing you know i wish it was just playing golf but no there's so much more that goes into it and just you just kind of hope it comes out natural then but uh it was a great time um please watch it please watch it everyone if you like it if you watch it we'll do more of this stuff if you don't watch it then we'll just do more press conference videos but um if you guys watch it we'll do it we'll do more. Thank you much, everyone. More questions. Here we go. Uh, oh, this is a fun one. Can you name some of your favorite MMA debuts that delivered in the Octagon, not ones you were excited for before the debut, but impressive performances? Not ones we were excited for? I guess almost like just, we just people, we didn't kind of came out of nowhere. This is tough. I can do the ones we're excited for because I tend not to remember. I mean, Yuri is the deliverer of debuts.

Yeah. As far as I assume these are UFC debuts. Yeah. I'm saying, yeah, it's go UFC debuts. And I'm assuming kind of debuts in the sense that they kind of came in has a, as a semi-finished product, you know, not like, you know, super prospecty level. with some great debuts, Yuri.

Justin Gaei. Justin Gachi? Oh, yeah. One of the best debuts. Joe Loz on. What was his debut? You're going way back now. Jen's Pulver.

Oh, on like days notice, and he finished him. Out of nowhere. Was that, I was considered a giant upset at the time, I assume. Let me see if I can find him. of the betting on. Or they're not even enough people fighting in the world at that time.

No, like Lozano was a pretty, it was like a plus 3.30. So he wasn't like, okay, not crazy. More of because he's done. Joe,

Joe had a rep from New England, but he just like came out of nowhere and fought Jenns Pulver who at the time was like, one of the greatest lightweights ever in the UFC. Now he's a Hall of Famer. And Joe freaking knocked him out with a punch in like under a minute. And you know what? You know what that earned him, Casey? Do that earn him a UFC?

contract. Oh, yeah, no. No. You want to know, you want to know what he had to do

after that? He had to go on the ultimate fighter after that. Goes and knocks out a lightweight legend for the promotion and under a minute

and they're like, hey, buddy, you're going on the ultimate fighter. And he went on the ultimate fighter season five. You know what?

Because I wasn't, I wasn't really watching MMA at that time. So I assumed he had won, my mind, I assumed he had won tough.

And as for winning, for winning tough, they booked him against, you know, the legend, or the future legend at the time, I guess Jen's Pulver. You make an interesting point. I wonder if they filmed it, if they filmed the season before that fight.

Yeah, it was different back then. The fight was September of 2006, Tough Five debuted February of 2007. Oh, God, it's so funny because Jen's Pulver was one of the goals. coaches. Oh, yeah. That's wild.

Okay. Yeah, I don't know. Some other big ones came in just. I remember Tyson Griffin making his UFC debut, and I was like, dude's really good. Frankie Edgar had a really good debut. Did he beat?

I think Frankie Edgar actually beat Tyson Griffin in his UFC debut. If memory serves it correctly, now I've got to like just go through topology. Frankie Edgar, UFC debut with Tyson Griffin. Wow. Oh, I was about to say,

you mentioned Tyson Griffin's. Jim Miller, and he beat Jim Miller on the regional scene to get that fight. All right. Well, thank you, Master's Universe. I'm not having to think. You know, I'm just going to name random names

throughout the rest of the show because I'm just going to think of it then. Oh, yeah, this guy. But, yeah, it's fun to think about. Actually, but they don't want to follow up of this follow up, though. Scott Master's question, who was a fighter who was very hyped and you had high hopes for who flopped? I have one.

I always go to. Go. Singoku featherweight, Hatsu, Yoki. Oh, yes. He came over as a very, like Sean, I remember Sean Shelby was very excited to bring him over to the UFC. And then he was one of the top featherweights in Japan. He didn't bite in Dream or a rise in the time. He fought in another organization called Singoku.

And he came over to UFC. And I was super excited for him. I thought he would, you know, be a top guy. And yeah, he kind of went like, you know, like one and four. Never looked that great. And kind of just, and once he left the UFC, kind of just disappeared in terms of professional fighting. That's my. Yeah.

Will Brooks is probably at the top of the list. Did he flop or the UFC just not won him? Because it's kind of two different things. It's one and four. I feel like, I don't know. I got to look at that one again but Will Brooks is one of them. He was one in three.

He was one and three in the UFC. He won his debut against Ross Pearson and then he got finished in three straight fights after that. Yeah, he lost the olives. Yeah, the Nick Lentz won. Both olives and Nick Lens and then he was done. Yeah. But after like everything he did for Bellator to be like,

all right, F it, we would rather just send you to the UFC and then he was gone in four fights. But he should have been on that that comeback season, the ultimate fighter. They missed the boat on that one. Yeah, I never understood that one.

Yeah. That's one of those rematches, like rematches we never got that I wanted to see in the UFC. And that was a stupid one that I wanted, I've always wanted to see Chandler Brooks three again. Because Brooks is two and O, right? He was two and O against Chandler, correct?

He beat him both times. You beat him both times, yep. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's still just one of those wild. It doesn't make sense type of kind of, the kind of topology records, Will Brooks, two wins over Michael Chandler. And Michael Chandler's prime, mind you.

And then kind of just sputtered his way the rest of his career for various reasons. Yeah. Any other giant disappointments that you just said? I'm trying to. Hatsio gives up, because you always have like, no, you know, like, Jed has that. Anthony had a good career. Pattis had a great, a good career, but maybe not as good as people thought it would be. He won the belt.

He came over. He did. He won the belt. Yeah. He might not be an all-time great, but he was a great fighter. I don't know if that makes sense. Because I'm trying to, like, it's tough to decipher what's a, like, a flop from big hype to,

a guy who got hype and then just fell apart. Like, is Brandon Thatch? That guy? I guess we always have those Brandon Thatches, Eric Silva, those type of guys who just kind of like... Roger Huerta.

Roger Werta. And they had great performances. You look on the resume, like, especially earlier, they had, like, great fights. Like, Roger Werta versus... I think I saw this on Twitter. People were talking with Roger Wirtta. Who was this guy?

You know, it's kind of forgotten a guy supposed to be this great fighter because he was the guy that cover sports illustrated. Like, his fight versus Clay Guida was one of those fights. It's like those handful of fights that, like, made me a fan. And, yeah, Roger Waters, you could call one of those guys that, but a lot of the hype is, it's just because of maybe their fighting style and no, their look, not necessarily

how good they are. So it's kind of, it's a bit unfair to Roger Werza, you know, to put that all on him, because it's not like he was claiming. you know, to be the greatest ever. He was just a guy, you know, just trying to make a living. He just, you know, looked really good coming off the bus. Broadcast duties for this weekend. No questions about Saturday's card.

Brennan Fitzgerald, Daniel Cormier, Loris Sanko. Yeah. Oh, no question about this weekend's card. I beg to differ. Michael Mottes Sacheran loses. What's your chance of getting back to a title in your opinion? We'll be pretty steep climb for her with a lost two man in a Macy, even with the rose one in between.

Yeah. Yes. It would be a very steep climb. Just because she's not good on the mic. She's not good at interviews. That's, yeah. That's basically it. Macy, if she loses, sorry, I went jump in front of you,

but Macy, if she, Macy can talk. Macy's not afraid to just say those things, you know. And Aaron's, you know, as much trash talk she got, it's just like, I don't, maybe Macy might not show up. And then Macy just runs. of that and like triples the trash talk on top of that trash talk so Aaron's just not that person and unfortunately she's not like a knockout queen so you know it's just going to be tough for Aaron even though I think Aaron I still believe in it I'm still in the Aaron Blancher

bandwagon she's still young I think she's still getting better I still believe she is a I'm not gonna say future champ but she's a future title contender who can be a champ yeah I mean I obviously was incredibly high on her when she came into the UFC and I was obviously incredibly high on her with a lot of the wins that she's had along the way. But dominant ones, yeah. The men on Fioro fight gave me cause for pause. Gave me a little bit of concern. I was just like, yeah, she's good, but I just, I don't know if she's going to win the belt, man.

She's got holes. She's got glaring holes. And she is young and she can she can close some of those gaps, but she's just fighting at the top of this division all the time now. Like there's no going back to like, you know, rework the holds. You're just every fight is a banger. Every fight is a tough test. Like she lose the man and they throw her in there with Rose.

And a lot of people thought Rose won that fight. Macy being one of them thought Rose won that fight. against Aaron. I didn't think, I, I, I scored for Aaron. It was super close, but I did score for Aaron. I will, I will, I will kind of criticize Barber real quick. I think it's pretty bad prize fighting to say, oh, I'm fighting someone I should come, coming off a loss.

You know, you're not really building up your opponent. It is kind of weird, but whatever. Hey, but she's, she's speaking her truth, so. It's a big opportunity for Macy, man. There's, like, she could just. ruin everything for a lot of people. If she goes out there and just beats the hell out of Aaron Blanchfield, she stops Aaron Blanchfield on Saturday.

She jumps in front of Natty Ice, in my opinion. I think she will. Oh, about it. We know that ice is great, but her fighting style is kind of a, I don't, she's kind of like a more exciting Tisha Torres in a sense. You know,

she stays on the outside and pops you from the outside. Daddy's got, I think, a little more power, a little more, I don't know, a little more exciting to watch than Tisha Torres, but at the highest levels,

Natia is kind of her kind of circular movement. It's just, it's going to be hard for her to get kind of big finishes against the high level opponents. But she's clearly very good. Macy, but it's just, she's a banger. And we know Dana White loves her style, and she's not afraid to kind of say whatever she wants on the mic,

which is good for us, good for fans, you know, good for the promotion. She's a vicious, she's vicious in there, man. I was cage-side. for the Amanda Hebas fight. Jesus. She beat the soul out of Amanda Hebas. That was crazy.

I think Macy's like one of those fighters. Like when people kind of say like, oh, I love women's fights and stuff. I think a lot of times like they love way, like someone like Macy Barber fights because she fights of so much emotion. Like you can like, you see her rage when she's fighting.

And I think that really carries, carries over to fans when you watch. And I think that's why people are kind of still fascinated by, kind of the Macy Barber kind of UFC career and that's why we're always kind of interested in her fights, I feel. Yeah. I always wondered what

her career would look like in the eyes of the fans if she didn't fight Roxanne Montefarry. That was such a bad night for her. Very bad night for her. She talked a lot of greasiness and then lost and she got hurt in that fight, which didn't help because every time

because she was legitimately hurt in that fight. Like Tori, C L, like, in seconds, but she talks so much shit that people were like, against like the nicest person in the sport. Yeah. Yeah, you were talking shit against basically the female equivalent to like Wonder Boy, you know, in a sense of like, how can you not, how can you hate her? She's just so nice, you know, it's Roxy, you know, and she was like, almost mad.

And then she was out for a while. And then was the Miranda Maverick fight the next one? I don't remember. Because a lot of people thought she lost that fight. Oh, I remember, it was, and I definitely thought she lost that fight. Yeah. And then there was, what else? Because there was a couple, there were a couple ones.

The Andrea Lee won, I thought. Oh, speaking of maybe potential. I actually thought she lost the Andrea Lee fight. Yeah. Yeah. But. Which is why we kind of, you know, put a little asterisk on Andrew Lee's like really horrible losing streak. I mean, now, Andrew Lee's just really, you know, she's just not, you know, top tier anymore.

But at that point, We're like, oh, man, there were some losses. Andrew Lee had that really weren't losses. But I remember that was one, too. Yeah. Oh, man, going back, good question, talking about, you know, guys we had, or women, we had super high potential for it, turn it to be flops, potentially Miranda Maverick. I was very, I had Aaron Blanchfield and Miranda Maverick kind of on the same level coming

out of the victa. Aaron Blenstrel won when they won when they fought head to head. But I still thought eventually Miranda Mavik would be right up there in the top five position. I don't know if that's ever going to happen. But Miranda McAvick has, who should fight in soon? Rose. Rose, that's it.

So Miranda McAvick is still right there. I think the UFC still believes in her by giving her someone like Rose. But yeah, I remember. I remember. I mean, her losses were to Macy Barber, which almost, I mean, almost unanimously people thought Mitt Miranda won that fight at the time.

Then lost to Aaron Blanchfield. And then lost to Jasmine. Jazz DeVizius in Canada. Okay. And that's it, man. She's won all of her fights since then. She's six and one in her last seven. She's won four in a row.

And now she's fighting Rose Namuenas in Atlanta in two weeks. Man, Rose is getting some tough fights. And they don't get Rose in easy night ever. Jeez. Yeah, geez. You have the Cortez fight. And that's not an easy fight, but compared to, what Macy Barber would have been.

Yeah. That was a little bit of a step down. So, yeah. Was Cortez, the late notice? Yeah. The original booking. Yeah, is what I thought. Yeah.

Now, it was the original booking. Yeah, okay. Okay. All right, let's take two more. Take a couple more. Yeah, take a couple more. Yeah, super chat. Oh, here we go.

Okay. Okay. So, KFC, UFC, Thunder. Also back in Klein, you name is a decision. Thunder and five. by the way I cannot wait to watch

Indiana just put the pin in the Knicks I've been enjoying this series so much game three kind of stunk because they were just Indiana was just putting the boots to them and I was enjoying myself so much and then they lost the game and I'm like oh God like this is the type of loss that can like turn an entire series around

and then Indiana comes back and does it back to them the next night and now it's over. It's all over. And I told you. Is it 3-1 right now? Is it 3-1 or is it? 3-1 Indiana.

It's about to be over in five. And I told you. I just told you. Too much emotional dump on an Eastern Conference semi-final series. Like, it's great you beat the Southics. Congratulations. But guess what?

And when it all comes down to it, when we begin the 2026 season, no one will care that you beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Very injured Celtics. I mean, I'm not going to use that excuse, although, you know. A little bit, but they were. You didn't beat it. They lost.

I mean, they were losing almost all of the minutes that they lost. They're about to go down three one, even if Tatum didn't get hurt. So, I mean, there's a, you never know. you never know but i can't per fair fair i can't really use that's an excuse but doesn't it doesn't it feel good i ain't i ain't i ain't mad about it as a sports fan it doesn't it feel good sometimes to it's it's fun when your team wins but sometimes it's even more fun when you're when the other team loses like sometimes like it's it's a different feeling yeah don't be an asshole that's it look i actually played i actually played golf

Me and my kid played golf the other morning with a guy who's from New York used to be a Knicks fan. Became a Celtics fan. Like, he had a Celtics towel on his golf bag from New York, grew up a Knicks fan because of the fan base. And this is, I shit you not. He turned to become a Celtics fan. It's the only Boston team he likes. And he's like, die-hearted Indiana, like, hopes Indiana beats the Knicks. We got along great playing golf.

It was fantastic. so. All right. One more super chat. Terrans, I plan on going New Year's Eve Verizon event this year. Sick!

What events are things must I do in Japan? It will be my first time there. Mike, any dream event you want to go to. I'll answer this quick. And then I'll let you

give your advice because you've been to the Rise and New Year's Eve card on several occasions. Yeah, four or five of them, yeah. Dream event. I mean, I don't care. Like, if someone was like

you want the full Super Bowl experience? Like I would go check it out. I'd like to go to like a WrestleMania now just to see what it's like. I would like to go cover Romania and just go through that whole thing. For MMA, it's probably Risen or a KSW like super stadium show. Or maybe I might even throw a good old octagon up in there now the way they're doing their stadium shows too. Like those just like fun environments. like with like true fight fans who just like MMA and so no one's booing anybody or

you know wooing and all the fights like that's kind of the shit I'd like to go to but as a as a pro of the New Year's Eve rising cards Casey what should Terrence do um first first day Terrence get there very early get there before the first fights begin because you want to make sure This isn't like a UFC event where you might miss a prelim or whatever. You want to get there at the very beginning. It's the very beginning. They're going to have the opening ceremonies, which is just the coolest thing ever. Make sure you see the opening ceremonies.

Make sure you get to experience it. This is the cool part. This is why you won't get there early because I'm assuming this is going to be at Saitama. In the stadiums in Japan, you can bring in your own food. So there are lots of convenience stores right outside the arena. Fill your bag up of cheap sandwiches, some cheap drinks, put them in your bag. and go inside and just you, you'll have a great affordable time. And it was just being incredible experience.

It was just get there very early. And yeah, if you're in Tokyo, it takes about 45 minutes to get out to the arena. But it's a simple train. You just jump on the train. It's pretty simple. And just get there early. And you will have a fantastic time. And also, during the intermissions, to my surprise, there were like J-pop girl bands playing outside

in the kind of the open concourse area. So like there's so much like entertainment going on around the fights too. So yeah, get there early, enjoy it all. The only thing that might, the only thing that might kind of hurt your wallet is the, the merch. The merch is expensive. But it's very good quality. And in terms of just things to do in Japan, there's nothing you can't, there's nothing, nothing, nothing is bad. Just experience it.

And don't be a, don't be a dick. Don't be, don't be a bad tourists, be a good visitor. and respect to culture, respect to people there. And you'll have a great time. That's about it. Sound advice. Enjoy. Oh, real quick, before we get out of here.

Mike and E. Casey, what are your thoughts on ESPN removing the UFC library? People were saying, I saw this on Twitter too. Yeah, I saw it on Twitter. Did I make a concerned effort to try to see if that's true? No. Maybe we'll do a live. Maybe we'll take a look at it. What does this mean?

That sucks, too, because I do not have UFC Fight Pass. So if you want to go see old fights, you have to go to UFC Fight Pass or find them through other nefarious ways. I have five pass. I can't quit on it. I just can't quit on Five Pass. I mean, because we work in the industry, you know, like, it makes sense for us. But, I mean, I think for average, you know, 99.9% of the fans, you know, are you getting five-fass? pass just to watch old fights and, you know, local promotions. I'm not sure. How much is fight pass

a month now? Uh, 99. Yeah, man, all those subscription fees add up. All right. I'm looking here. I'm just, I'm searching for UFC 300. No? Just one clip of Diego Lopez finishing Sudique Yusuf. There's a countdown show and a road to UFC 300. preview special. That's it. See, that's kind of bust. To me, that's kind of, I don't know. Why? That's kind of bull crap.

I mean, like, you pay money for ESPN Plus to watch, you know, the catalog of fights, I would think. I mean, that's why I thought I had ESPN Plus where I could watch old paper views and old fights. But, um, no. Yeah, I don't know, man. Yeah. I don't like, I don't know why. And to do this now, not.

Ended the contract. Why do it now? I got questions. I got questions. I need answers. I need answers. Get the fans. Fans need answers.

But, uh, you all need answers. Yeah. It's super weird. If you're trying to keep the UFC, it doesn't sound like a great way to keep them. Is this a UFC call to get more people to get fight pass? Perhaps.

I don't know. To me, this sounds like, it's not the Nell in the coffin, but like it sounds like they're getting or tap tap tap in those nails as far as the ESPN as far as as killing that ESPN deal you know we all assumed it's not going to stay around anyway but by them taking this away right now so early yeah i i honestly wish like i had insight and like could know what it means because i truly have no idea but at the same time like does the ufc even care okay cool we'll just put them all in fight pass and like people can pay us all the money

for our platform to go watch old fights, which is they should have probably done to begin with, just like kept everything there. And they probably did, if we're being honest. So yeah, I don't know, super weird. That's it? That's it. All right.

Sound of the music. We're out of here. Appreciate all of you. You're all the best. And we will be back. tomorrow preview show I believe it's going to be the great AK Lee

and Jed Mishu getting ready for UFC Vegas 107 and then all the weekend programming heading into and out of a big event at the world's most famous apex

we'll have people's free fight show a post fight show onto the next one and then to be on the road to Newick, New Jersey for UFC 316 get excited for KCI Mike Eck

thank you for watching back next week we're on This has been between the links. A Vox Media production. I'm Esther Lenn. Nailed it. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

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