MMA Fighting - BTL | Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane, UFC 285, Jake Paul Loses, UFC Vegas 70 & Bellator 291

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

On Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, one of the greatest fighters to ever step foot inside the UFC's octagon returns to action, this time in a new weight class to fight for the heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 285.  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will preview the incredibly fascinating headliner for UFC 285 and discuss the biggest questions surrounding Jones' return, as well as Gane's latest attempt to become undisputed champion. Additionally, topics include the flyweight championship co-main event between Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso, along with the loaded UFC 285 lineup, Jake Paul losing his first boxing match to Tommy Fury and if the rematch is the way to go for both guys, UFC Vegas 70 and Brendan Allen's big win, Tatiana Suarez's successful return, Yaroslav Amosov's incredible performance at Bellator 291 and where he ranks at welterweight globally, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and recent UFC Vegas 70 Performance of the Night winner Joe Solecki. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Joe Solecki: @JoeSolecki 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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Anime Fighting Studios, 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. And what a time it is to be an MMA fan. We're a little over 48 hours away from UFC 285. A phenomenal card on paper.

A main event that is just so incredibly intriguing. We have the return of one of, if not the greatest fighter, to step inside of a cage. We'll talk a lot about UFC 285 later in the program. A lot happened in the M. May world and beyond this past

weekend as well. But there's a lot to talk about. So let's get into it. First, we're going to introduce our special guest. Speaking of this past weekend, MMA, this man picked up another win inside the octagon, another submission win inside the octagon. And he got himself an extra check, a bonus check, for his second round submission of Carl Deaton, the third at UFC Vegas 70,

making his second appearance on the program, UFC layweight contender, Joe Selecky. Joe, welcome back, my man. Congratulations on the victory. How are you? I'm good. I'm trying to get that kind of performance on here today. instead of the no contest.

So we're coming for the bonus today. That's my goal. There you go. And back on the show, he is our Woody Page, Mr. No Gray area. He's the exhibition king. He's your favorite hot take artists, hot take artist from No Betts Bard and Dan, they were good. Mr. Jedmishu.

How are we doing, buddy? Doing great. Just shout out to Joe, cash in my parlay last week. Just doing things to Carl Deaton. And I'm no Carl Deaton, though. That's all I got to say. I think I can put up a better fight. Ah, all right.

Before we get into this, Jed, I have a question for you because we had a heck of a morning today as we typically do on Thursday mornings. And we had at least one person call in and had a question for you. So I'm going to ask it to you right now because they wanted to hear your reaction to some big news that happened over the last 36 hours or so. And I didn't know when I'd be able to squeeze it in. So we'll go ahead and do it now. So your favorite fighter of all time in the UFC, Darren Till is no longer on the UFC roster. He says he asked for his release.

He was granted said release. He vowed to be back, but as of right now, he's no longer a UFC fighter. So being the president of the Darren Till fan club, as you are, I think it's fitting to get your reaction to this news. It was just weird, right? Like, this is, I know, nothing. This is entirely a statement of ignorance and just total guesswork. I don't even know what

could cause this except for that he's injured and wants to get on that Connemar Greger, exit Usada, you know. Like that's the only thing that this makes sense. If he's planning on coming back and it's not, hey, I want to be released so I can go box Jake Paul, because that's clearly not the thing. Like, I just have, I have no idea what this would be other than I am injured, have a history of perpetually being injured, and I would like to take some extra vitamins to get myself back to square one. I was super weird. I don't think any of us saw coming. And I, I guess we'll know more moving forward if he does announce that he's signing with somebody doing something else, or if he just is gone for two years before coming back.

then we'll know. But yeah, super weird. But good. That's one less ranking spot in middleweight to be taken up by a dude who hasn't won since the Obama administration. Well, okay. Well, there's, I said I would ask. And there we go. So let's get into this past Saturday.

Am I wrong? Is it not super weird that this just happened, right? Like, it is. The damn roster bot is the best newsbreaker in MMA right now. the roster watch Twitter account. He's all over it. Unbelievable. But let's start with UFC Vegas 70, a wacky card.

Not a bad one by any means, but wacky for sure, because we lost the main event right as the main card started. We got Brennan Allen versus Andre Monez as the new main event. Brennan Allen gets the job done. He submits Andre Menez in the third round. And Jed, we'll start with you. What was your reaction to Allen's big win?

And was this in your eyes more of Brennan, leveling up and being better than we all thought, or perhaps you and I specifically on our rankings, maybe we were a little too quick with ranking Muniz as high as we did. A little column A, little of column B, right? Like you said coming into this, Mike, that like you thought this was going to be the toughest test

for Andreem Monez. And I didn't totally agree with you. I didn't totally disagree with you. I sat on the fence a little bit. And it turned out should have just agree. because it very clearly was. I will say, Andre Monez did not look great

or like he had his fastball that night for whatever reason, but that's not to take away from Brennan Allen's performance. I mean, he dominated the grappling exchanges, got himself a finish, maybe probably the best he's ever looked

inside the UFC. And now he's, Ica legit, top 15 middleweight, you know, like he's now going to be a going concern. So in these situations, I normally want to defer to player B was better than we thought. But I do feel like in this particular instance, a couple of us were so high on Andremu Kyi's.

And with the benefit of hindsight, you can look back and say, well, Jed, you frequently make statements like, Darren Till hasn't beaten anybody good ever and is terrible as a result. and then you can look at Andre Monez's record and be like, well, actually, he hasn't really beaten anybody good effort. So I think it's a little bit of both, right? He tapped out Jokre, and we all got really excited by that because that's still an incredible accomplishment.

And then he backpacked Uriah Hall for 15 straight minutes, and so some of us hand up were like, oh, this dude is the next scrapling truth of this division. He's the next Demi and Maya, Jokore, etc. And it may not be the case. Like he might just be a good dude. Maybe he just had an off night. But based on how that fight looked, it just kind of feels like Brendan Allen has leveled up, certainly to some extent. Because again, the other thing to remember in this is Brennan Allen's what, like 28? He's not 30. That's super young to be like you can make a bunch of development in a

very short span of time. He's been around for a long time. He's fought, you know, 40 times or something, but I'm going to say this is more a leveling up, but there is definitely some of the, we might have overrated on Jimenez. Joe, I know you were basking in your victory, the spoils of victory. What did you think of Brennan Allen's performance? Did you get a chance to watch? And if so, what did you think of it? Yeah, I watched live because we were watching the card and being like, okay, there's been a bunch of finishes, but no fight that's like warranted fight of the night,

so maybe we'll do four performance bonuses. So I was like, okay, if he doesn't get submitted in the first two rounds, we're good. There's no finish here. You know, I was kind of, I guess what I had seen of Monez as well, I thought it was going to be, he has like that knockout punch submission version,

you know, where at any second, you're not safe. And I never expected Alan to stifle him. I thought, you know, I thought he could grapples him a little bit, maybe survive, but I never thought he would completely shut him down. I thought it would be survive, get back up, kickbox a little bit, kind of a boring fight. I definitely never thought he was going to submit him. So we were watching at dinner on my phones, I was trying to see, like,

and then as soon as Alan's up and I'm like, well, I'm not getting performance to the night. That was my main concern. Then I was also shocked on how it went, you know. When you look at, like, like Jeb just said, all the changes he's made, had the end grazing his corner, being gone up to Philly too with like Sean Brady and those guys. I think he came in, you know, with the right template to beat him, which was kind of that top pressure, keep his hip square, wear on him, and then he kind of capitalized.

And it might be the Mines wasn't as good as, you know, I thought as well. I thought it was so impressive what he did at Uriah Hall. But then in hindsight, when you look at it, you're like, well, he didn't finish him. And Uriah Hall hasn't been a guy with the best ground game. So it could be like, you know, like he's at a little bit of a little bit of A&B, but definitely impressed with Brendan Allen, especially with, you know, his only losses in the UFC coming into guys that have wanted to do, you know, excellent since that fight. Joe, we also saw the return of Tatiana Suarez.

She returned after nearly a four-year layoffs, submits Montana Dela Rosa in the second round, and she wants to go back to Strawe, wants to compete for that title. Long time away. And sometimes, and we were talking about this, there's a new crop of fans who had never seen Tatiana Suarez fight. Like she hadn't thought since pre-pandemic,

no idea who she was. People were wondering, like, why are we hyping her up so much? Never even heard of this woman. And she comes in, gets a submission, tough opponent, because Montana just brings it. She doesn't care who you are and what you bring to the table, what your resume looks like. But sometimes expectations are almost too high and it's almost unfair to try to reach them. But she goes out, feels it out for a minute, gets a submission and gets it done.

So how would you grade her return to the Octagon on Saturday? I mean, especially considering the ring rust and the level of opponent, it's an A. You know, I think she looks spectacular. You know, and it was not one-way traffic where she didn't see some adversity. It wasn't a it wasn't the best comeback fight, you know. She, you know, dealt with some good defensive wrestling on the wall. She dealt with some guillotine attempts. She dealt with her fair share of adversity.

And I think she passed a test with flying colors. I think if she goes back down to 115, especially, with kind of her physical prowess, even at 125, it was pretty dominating. So at 115, I've got to imagine there's not going to be much of, you know, a gap between her getting to that title eliminator or even a title shot here soon. But I thought she looked spectacular for her return. Jed, how would you grade it? A minus, not quite like an A plus plus because we saw, frankly, what looked like some rust in there, which is to be expected. She hadn't fought in like five years.

So you got to get back into the swing of things. But this wasn't Dominic Cruz versus, to tell you Mizugaki, right? Just a perfect 30 second steam rolling. She had to work a little bit, and that's good for her. like she's going to have knocked off that rust and it's part of why this was a smart opponent right she didn't come back and say throw me into the deep water she said i would like a a winnable fight but a fight that will test me a fight at a way class that i don't intend to compete at but then i don't have to deal with that whole aspect of this coming back and i can just focus on getting back in the cage doing

the right stuff getting myself together uh so i thought it was really smart everything handled and we got the performance. Frankly, I expected it to be a little more dominant because I just was like, this just won't matter. But I think we got a good performance out of her. I mean, obviously, she scores the finish, gets herself back together. And now she can drop to 115. And I would say, you know, put her right into the thick of things. Maybe she'll want to get two fights before a title shop, but I'd be pretty comfortable just having her go and run, you know, not the Carlos Sparza fight, which I've seen floated around, just because that seems really mean to Carlos Barza

to do that again coming off, you know, losing the title. But if you wanted to throw her and against, I'm trying to think who else is the top five of that division right now? I don't know, Marina Rodriguez, you do that, it's fine. Like any of that would work for me. Oh, Jan Janon, that makes sense. Do that. That's a great fight for her.

I should have a matchmaking show. How about that? You should. I know, right? We do have so much to talk about. I don't remember Otno this week. Is that who y'all picked from Otna? That's who I picked.

Is that who I picked? What did they came to? I forget who he picked. Jessica Androge. You picked Jessica Androge. Oh, he's been, okay. Okay. I guess.

Sink or swim? Yeah, right? We have so much to talk about. I feel like we have to talk about Bellator 291 for a moment. Just one performance in particular, because there were some good performance on the card. There were a lot of fights, a lot of decisions. What performance could you be talking about, Mike?

Come on. Look, Jed, this is what we call a slow burn. Yeah, it was a slow, slow burn. But it was all worth it because we got a sensational performance from Welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov. And after everything that man has gone through over the last year, put on just an incredible show against Logan Storley. Did it on the feet.

What a performance. Just one of the just, I mean, what a story he has. And he is the undisputed champion. So, Jed, how impressed with you with Amosov? And I guess the big question I have for you, because there's conversation to be had about whether he is a top five wealth of weight in the world right now, maybe even higher in some people's eyes. Where do you rank him?

Where is Yaroslav Amosov in the overall context? of the Welterweight picture. Look, I know Welterweight's super deep division. You have to give this man his flowers. He has to be considered a top five guy in the sport because what more can he do? He's on 27 and 0. That is not doable.

That is an unreasonable thing to be. I said it all the time when Habib was doing his thing. Like, I don't even care if he fought Tommy Fury level cab drivers. Like, it's just not possible to be undefeated in this sport for that long. It is an incredible accomplishment. And if you look at Amasov's record, it's not a bunch of bums. Like, he is fighting good opposition.

Logan Storley is a top 15 welterweight, a damn good fighter. And this was a fight that seemed set up for him to have trouble with. You know, they fought before a very, very, very. close split decision. Storley was able to do a lot more grappling in that initial one, the great scrambles, great fight on their first time around. But Storley had been active, had fought several five-round fights, had won the interim belt, however disputedly that was, you know, like he had been active or Amosov had the world on his shoulders. He literally was in war, like literally was in combat.

Not combat sports, combat. And like all of that should be this huge distraction, right? To take away from his focus on this or just even, you know, you could channel that into motivation, I suppose. But it just is really hard for me to fathom being able to train and focus and, and do this kind of a job when your country is being invaded, you know, and your family can't even live at your home anymore for fear of rocket attacks.

Like it is, all of it is insane. And for him to come out here and put on that kind of performance on top of the rest of his resume and the fact that he has never seen him lose or never even really get particularly close to losing, like, you just have to give this man credit as a top five welterweight. Because I don't know that he would beat Kamar Usman or Leon Edwards, etc. but I don't know that he wouldn't. Like I cannot confidently pick any man in this world to beat that dude. And he's top five for me easily.

Joe, I don't know if you watch it or not, but you may have seen highlights or, you know, red recaps or whatever. But after everything this man went through to have a performance like that against a guy like Logan's d'Orly, incredible stuff, was it not? Well, 100%. And that's the thing is getting you done on the feet was super impressed.

I think it showed how well, round that he is, you know, um, the big thing, you know, like Jen just said, being off, he was not only not training, but he was at war, but, you know, to be so much further ahead than the first time, when he didn't have that time to get better between fights, he was dealing with real life issues, you know, um, so I thought maybe that's where Sterly would have closed the gap a little bit in that time off. And, uh, the fact that he came out was so dominant, I think that's exactly it. And I think, you know, if he had a different base beside his wrestling, you know, If he was out there submitting people and had, you know, his striking looked better and looked well-rounded, that'd be great.

But I think you would say, well, the guys in the UFC at the top five, you know, the wrestling is that factor. But he has world-class wrestling. That's what Usman has. That's what separates Usman from everybody else. So the same thing. I mean, of course, we don't know until they get in there. But to say he's not top five or at least top three, I'd say, would be kind of ludicrous, right? I think he would give Leon Edwards a ton of problems.

And I think Ustman and him, if they fought 10 times, I think he could split him right down the middle. You know, I think, and I mean, just the ability to keep developing, like I said, without the time between camp, that means he came home, maybe had a little pre-camp, gotten camp, and put on the performance of a lifetime. Imagine what he can do now, you know, when he's back to training full-time. It's going to be really, really impressive. I don't think he'll ever get his due because, like they do with Chandler or other guys, you know, until you're actually in the mix, they're going to say, what if. But, I mean, it's not like he's fighting subpar competition, even in the 170 division at Belletor, you know? So I really think he's top three if I had to put a number to it. Yeah, just incredible stuff.

But let us move on. Like I said, there's so much to talk about. The point for round one goes to great round, but all he does is win. Joe Selecki. It is one to nothing. Well done. We did talk about the event that Joe got an actual win on. So I feel like this is fair.

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Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. So let's put a bow on this past weekend. Jake Paul suffered his first loss in the boxing world, losing a decision to Tommy Fury. I thought Tommy Fury clearly won.

Paul had his moments. Obviously, he had the big knockdown late in the fight. Some weird refereeing. But we were wondering how we would react to Jake actually losing a fight when he's been very, very smart in picking his opponents. This time it was an actual boxer and Tommy Fury gets the big win. So Joe, was this even on your radar? Did you watch it?

And if you did or even if you didn't, what did you think of the result? Were you surprised that Jake Paul lost to Tommy Fury? Yeah, I mean, first of all, yeah, I was on the plane when it was going on. But, you know, big bonus. I was able to support for the Wi-Fi, so, you know, life's good right now. But I was just following on Twitter, you know, like round-by-round updates because I was interested, you know. I don't know that I'm surprised that he lost because Tommy Fury is a, you know, legitimate boxer. But the most surprising thing was that after it happens, we're kind of, not we, but a lot of people are changing the narrative of like, well, you know, it's a stiff test.

He's a real pro box and all that. But the story going in, I feel like even on Jake Paul's end was this guy hasn't fought anybody, he's more of a, you know, personality also than a boxer, you know. you watch Dave Portnion and Rogan they were getting that argument about he's never full anybody he can't punch he's a real boxer but he is not he's not the highest level of competition the combined opponent's record was like what

40 and 120 and something like that so I'm not surprised I do know Tommy Fury is a legitimate okay boxer but I don't think we can go back and change history and say the lead up to this was everybody thinking Jake Paul was going to kind of crush him was what I that's what I always heard from people you know so I feel like

doesn't mean he has to be done or anything like that, but definitely I think he has to stick to, you know, hand-picking matchups in that wheelhouse. He cannot go above that so we can start with the, you know, the talks of Canello one day or, you know, crazy nonsense like that. So, you know, and even, I even Pester Prime kind of washed up, but very successful pro boxers, I think would be a bad idea at this point.

So obviously he can box a little bit, but I think we kind of saw it's not what, you know, he thought it was, whatever else thought it was. But I am kind of relieved after seeing this nonsense the leaked scripts and all the phony stuff that people put out there, that, you know, him taking a loss by decision does make it seem a little more real than some of the other stuff we've seen.

So I guess it kind of keeps it genuine in the grand scheme of things. Jed, as you know, up until probably like two or three days before the fight, I was not into this at all. I wasn't. But I believe it was this program, you sold me on it. You pushed me off over the edge. You got me out of the backyard, onto the fence, and then you shoved me into the neighbor's yard.

into watching this fight. And based on what you said about this fight heading in, one would guess you were pretty surprised by this result. Were you not? No. I feel like we're remembering this differently. I was surprised by what it looked like, not necessarily this result, right?

Because the way I got you into this, Mike, is I said, look, I'm legitimately interested to see, we're going to get the answer to some questions here. The questions being, what does Jake Paul look like when he fights? some dude that's young. And that's it, right? Like it is, to me, this whole thing has been less about Tommy Fury, the boxer. To some extent, it's there and what we saw him do to Jake Paul involved a lot of boxing, but it was mostly Tommy Fury is young and can sort of match Jake physically

and that we haven't seen that because even though Tyron Woodley hits much harder than Tommy Fury and Anderson Silva is a better boxer than Tommy Fury even, they are low volume, low output guys, they aren't going to do things, whereas Tommy Fury at the minimum knows at least a little bit and he has a corner that is great. Obviously his corner is exceptional considering his half-brother is the champion of the goddamn world. So they could tell him, hey, here are the things and he could at least come with the game plan and try to effectuate it. I had no confidence he could actually do it because he struggled with Anthony Taylor.

He hasn't looked good, but I at least wanted to see what was. happened when Jake Paul boxed some dude who was at least young. And honestly, that's my big takeaway in this fight is that, okay, like Jake Paul is who I thought he was from a boxing standpoint. He doesn't have a lot of tools, but he's willing. Like he is not shirking away from getting into a scrap with somebody. He just doesn't have the tools. And because the way his career had been sculpted, he never knew realistically that he didn't

have these tools. He probably to some extent thought that like, oh, I can just wing this right hand at people and I'll hit them and they'll fall over. And it's it's a little harder than that when you get to people who are going to fight back in a way. And we saw him have success. We saw him drop Tommy Fear. We saw Jake grow in this fight. He started throwing his own counter left hook and a jab and his own jab and he ends up dropping Fury in the eighth, right? Like I thought this fight was pretty good. It is what it is. These aren't two guys who are ever going to fight for a real championship. But I agree with Joe, like one of the biggest takeaways for me is great. We can now stop the very idiotic pretending of Canelo. But Jake Paul can move forward with his

boxing career, right? Like I don't think that it, they're going to run this back and that's fine. But like if Jake wants to continue boxing, okay. If people are interested, if he can draw up interest in it, I don't think he is forced to stick in former. MMA fighter land. I think he can broaden himself out because, like, he showed that he's at least a boxer. Like, he's willing to box. And we've seen that from, from jump to here, right? He's not great at it, but there are a lot of boxers and a lot of combat sports

athletes who aren't necessarily great at it, but who still get out there and do it because they like to do it. If Jake can do that, but also draw, you know, 100,000 pay-per-view buys, the credit to him. Yeah, maybe it was MBB when you said you were going to place a hefty wager on Jake Paul. Maybe that's where I got thrown off. But yes, you did sell you. I did bet on Jake Paul for sure because I just thought that like Tommy Fury isn't very good. And Jake, he gets hit with right hands a lot.

And Jake Paul has a decent one. I was like, oh, Jake Paul knows what he's doing, right? Like he has expertly selected his opponents. They got a little over their skis on this one. So, Jed, you said they're going to run this back. And both guys seem to want that. But the question is, like, is that smart for Jake Paul to run this one back? Like, it would make money.

But if you lose again, you know, where's he at? There's obviously the Nate Diaz possibility. Some say that might be dead because he lost Tommy Fury. I'm not sure if I actually buy that because I do think that's there. And it would be a very healthy but healthy payvery. But if you are the Jake Paul matchmaker, are you running this back? Or are you going a different direction with him? A thousand percent.

I don't understand the narrative that some people have come out with that this is, we're done with this and there's no need. One, this is the real, like, best opportunity for Jake to have, like, a rivalry that means something, right? Because Tommy Fury is a good foil for him in several respects, particularly with this win. And if he runs his back, if he comes out and knocks Tommy Fury out, then cool, we're done. But if he comes and he wins, it's another competitive. fight, then they can run a trilogy and then keep the money train going. And the thing is, he can win this fight. Like he, he lost a split decision.

I scored it for Tommy Fury. I felt very good. I think I had it 75, 73, something like that. But a lot of the rounds are close. If you scored it for Jake Paul, it's not like a total travesty, right? Like it's, it is an explicable scorecard, particularly getting the knockdown in the final round. And it's, he can win this fight. Maybe he will grow.

learn a little bit more. Maybe Tommy comes in overconfident because he won it in the rematch. Like this is his level of opposition. And so running it back with a guy at your level, a guy who people are going to be interested in watching, that makes all the sense in the world to me. So I think for sure you run this one back. And frankly, if I'm Tommy or in Tommy's corner,

I would consider losing, you know? Because the reality is here, Jake has options. Jake doesn't have to run this back. They could run Nate Diaz. They could do whatever. Some people will tune in to Jake. He's captivated the public's imagination. What you do next with Tommy Fury is super weird.

There are very limited options as far as I can tell that would do any sort of business. This is clearly the best move for Tommy as a rematch. and so to extrapolate that a little further, a trilogy match is also going to be the best move for Tommy after that. So yeah, you know, Tommy, if you're listening, don't take a dive, but maybe don't try your hardest, you know? Yeah, we'll see what Mike Perry's script looks like for this next one. But Joe, I think you wear a promoter have from time to time in the grappling world,

but if you were tasked to book Jake Paul's next fight, would you run this one back or would you, are you done with this? you close in the door, moving on to other opportunities. That's what I was going to say. I run like a mom and pop grappling promotion, Olin grappling, shout out to them. But so I'm not as qualified to speak on it. But if I was wearing the manager hat, which I also don't wear,

I do think I would take it just on the risk that people, just because we're so like, what have you done for me lately? I wonder if you're trying to do pay-per-view buys, you know, and also thinking longevity, I just wonder if people are like, what, we've seen that? And even though it was a good fight, they may say split decision, it's neither here nor there. I don't want to watch that again. I think if you put someone like Nate Diaz in there, hey, I think that actually favors Jake Paul,

which I can't believe I'm saying that, but just with the age and everything else and the size. And you know if you put Nate Diaz on something, people are going to tune in. Whereas I think you run the risk with the Tommy Fury rematch of, you know, he may lose again, and then we've got to pack it in, right? He's lost two, especially in boxing. But I think if you go Nate Diaz, you're still capitalizing the pay-per-view by a short-term. but I think long term that can rejuvenate him, set him up for a few more where he could afford to lose one,

you know, and maybe his record's a little better than if he just rematches Tommy Fury and now what is he like five and two or something like that. So I would go Nate Diaz, but I see the pros to both. I think long term, he takes somebody like he's been doing these retired MMA guys or, you know, tail-line MMA guys

and let him bounce back and do pay-per-view-byes at the same time. Well, it is time to move on. Let's get to the place where most of you are here to find out about and hear about. And that's what we're going to. KSW? Going to UFC 285. No, we're going to UFC 285.

The point for round two goes to Jedmishu. Jedmishu. Really committed there, Mike. I sure did. Shout out KSW. Yes. Phil de freeze.

What a heavy way. She steak, Phil. What a run this guy is on. But, uh, all right, UFC 285. What a freaking car this is. The main card rules. A lot of the prelims are interesting,

and they matter. In the main event, we have the return of John Jones' first fight over three years, making his heavyweight debut, not against Francis Ngano, but he will do it against Cyril Ghan, Francis Gano's final opponent in the UFC. So many freaking questions about this fight

on both sides, Joe Selecki, mostly on the John Jones side because of the layoff, et cetera. What's your biggest question about this fight? that you are most excited to get an answer to out there today. What? Who put that banner up? Because that banner, A plus work. I just, we need to respect that.

Casey, A plus shit, man. Now, please proceed, Joe. Joe, what is your biggest burning question? And is it John Jones being back and heavier than ever? I mean, the weight is definitely a thing. Also the time off. and we haven't seen him like this. He's typically come back from longer layoffs and been a little flat.

And his last few outings, I know he blames that on motivation and other things. They were close. You know, they weren't blowouts like we've seen him in other fights. And when we've seen him heavier, that especially in the time off in the OSP fight, he was a little slower. He wasn't the same guy. So all that being said, he's still John Jones. And I do believe if he is motivated for something, you know, that favors him.

but also the new discipline. You know, if he truly is being, you know, as regimented, as disciplined, as calculated as he is, I wonder if that doesn't take away from the magic of what makes him so special. It seems like reckless John Jones running out there, throwing flying knees to open a title fight, was what made him who he is, you know.

With all the new training implemented, all the discipline, I wonder if he's going to lose some of that. And I do wonder if he's going to be a little slower, you know. I don't know that just because Cyril Gahn, you know, definitely has a strike. base, it may still be difficult to take him down if you're not naturally that size. You know, I know he's put on size, but, you know, Francis is naturally as big and as strong as Francis is.

That fits his frame. So it'll be interesting to see if, you know, Don can stop a takedown or two. Is that going to drain John Jones because he's putting so much mass? So I'm definitely intrigued. I don't think it's the walk in the park that a lot of people have been, you know, kind of selling it as. I wasn't as intrigued at first. I wanted to see him come back and fight Francis.

still would love to see that. But as it gets closer, I think there is a lot more questions than just John Jones come back running through another division. I think it very well could favor gone, if it goes past a little while. What's your biggest question about it now, Jed?

Is it on the Jones side? Is it on, maybe it's on the Cyril Gahn side? Who knows? Where are you at? What's the biggest burning question you have? I mean, it's just what the hell does John look like, right? Like he hasn't fought in three years. years he hasn't won a fight in four uh he didn't i've rewatched dom krears fight a bunch he just

didn't win that fight um i don't even think he won the tiago santo's fight though if you scored it for john that's totally fine uh but he didn't look undeniably did not look good in either of them uh and to some extent didn't even look that great against anthony smith right and we talked about this and no buts barred this week i understand the to believe John when he says, I wasn't motivated, et cetera. I have two main problems with that, aside from the fact that it's just like a very convenient answer for why you look like shit. One, if you weren't motivated, why were you still doing this?

Why not move to light heavyweight earlier? Why keep coming back if you aren't motivated? So I take a lot of grain of salt. And the other is like, I think the simpler and more correct answer is that the division caught up to him, that he's old. old and he's only 35 and I know I'm sure the comments are already exploding because people hate when I point this out the fighters are old and like fighters are old and get worse or whatever but mid to late 30s is pretty pretty much it generally when your athletic peak starts

to decline and historically 10 to 12 years is when your fight miles catch up to you like that is just a lot of years in the gym, fighting, training, working. I've seen it with all the greats. They're great. And the true, true elite elites of the elites, Anderson Silva, can extend their primes. Even after they've lost their fastball, they can win with off-speed pitches. I got to say, it felt a lot like John was winning with off-speed stuff in his last couple of outings. And so taking some time off to move to a new weight class, which is generally easier to move up.

Upper tends to be easier than the lower weight classes. I have no idea what he's going to look like. I have no idea what approach he's going to take to this fight. We know nothing about what this fight is going to look like. Truly, we have no clue. So if John Jones comes out and wrestles, like Joe said, maybe he can't take Gondown. Go back and watch that fight.

Francis de Ngan, who took Seorgon down a whole bunch. He also did it by just being a hoss, by being 275 of rock solid muscle and just manning that dude down. Can John do that at 240? No clue. generally no idea. Does he not? Does he do the worst version of John Jones where he just tries to play rangy kickboxer? Like that I don't have none of us know at all what's about to happen. And so this fight is entirely questions. Like you can't feel confident in any way about what is about to take

place, who's about to win, how it's going to look like. It's all up in the air, which makes it fascinating. Like that's why I'm tuning in on Saturday. I would like to know the answer to these questions and we're going to get them. And that's, that's what's interesting about hearing you talk about this, Jed, because I remember when this fight was first booked, you were very confident that Cyril Ghan was going to not just win, but run over John.

And as the fight gets closer and closer, it seems like because of the questions, yeah, and you watch tape. So you, I assume you don't feel as confident. Now you just said it, but this will not be a serial gone runover type performance as you previously thought.

It could be. It could be John running over Cerewell. It could be anything. Like when I went and watched the tape, my initial reaction to this was just like, well, John has historically had his worst performances

against athletic dudes who could match his physicality. And CilGon is obviously that and is a better range kickboxer which is where despite all logic and reason, John seems to prefer fighting. Like, that is the most

frustrating part of the John Jones experience to me is he's the best clinch fighter in the history of the sport and he refuses to do it because he is long and just wants to do that despite being bad at it. Like despite it actively being the worst part of his game, he tries to do it the most. And if he does that against Gahn, like, I just like, oh, he's going to lose because Cyril Gahn will kick his legs and move around the outside and I'll be done. And then I watched tape and I was just like, I don't have any idea, man, because I will Gond want to throw. kicks if John's going to catch the kicks and take him down. John is pretty good at catching kicks thrown against him. That oblique kick, like this fight could suck ass is where I've settled on.

It could be really cool. Like, it could be John taking him down, elbow on his face off. It could be Cyril gone, just putting on a kickboxing lesson. Or this could be 25 minutes of them both standing 12 feet apart from each other and kicking each other in the knee. Like, it's, I have no confidence in what this fight is going to look like. And when I watched the tape, I was just like, oh, there are a lot of ways for John to succeed here.

Because Sierra Gond doesn't make the best choices all the time. And so I just have no, I can't feel confident in Gond. Like, I think this fight should favor him. I have no confidence that it will. Joe, some people say,

and look, we all wanted to see John versus Francis. We all wanted to see it, you know, the light heavyweight goat against the terrifying Francis and Ghanu. And there are some, some people who say that of the options in front of John currently, or where they were a few months ago, whether it be Francis or Stipei and now Cyril Gahn, that Gahn might actually be the

toughest stylistic matchup of the three. And I don't know if I agree with that, but when you break this one down, do you, is there a case to be made that Gond is the toughest stylistic matchup or are you not really buying into that? I mean, I'm worried that I'm like criminally underestimating gone because I feel like at heavyweight he's not the knockout artist at Francis where I feel like John could control

Francis from four rounds and like the steep fight with Francis the first one where you're just going you're still holding your breath going yeah but he's still going to start on the feet in another round I don't think Cyril is that guy but he still is a heavyweight natural heavyweight with good kickboxing he could knock him out of course or he could out point him

so I think it is an intriguing matchup but I think where you know the steep A fight and the Francis fight were more intriguing to me was they're more based off the physicality

I think no matter you know steep A fights at range of course uses his boxing some low kicks and we know that John could get stuck into that too

but they would have ended up clenched up would have been competitive certain areas there would have been that physicality like Jed said I do worry that

you know this can be them staring at each other for five rounds and not deliver you know which would be just it would be very

anti-climatic for John's comeback. So I hope it's not that. I do think, you know, Cyril's dangerous, of course, but he also doesn't make good decisions. That's what Judge has said. That's true. Like, he kind of threw away a title fight by dropping back on a leg lock. And John is an IQ guy.

So I do think it's John's fight to win. As long as all the boxes are actually checked, and like I said earlier, that checking the boxes didn't hurt him by being too disciplined because he's kind of a loose cannon by nature. And, you know, as long as the changes to heavyweight, you know, didn't catch up to him as long as he's developed like a natural heavyweight and not,

you know, put artificial muscle on that he can't fuel, you know, because that is a realistic possibility. It's a first camp in his new body, so to speak. So yeah, it wasn't my first choice. I definitely would have taken Francis or Steppe first, but I think this could be a great fighter. I think it could be, you know, an absolute wash where we're going. All right, I wish I would turn it off. I'd become Maine. So obviously, I hope it's the first one. And look, I think it's important to note. And, John Jones has a lot of faults and he's done a lot of awful crap and it's not forgotten about. It's not forgotten about it.

It isn't forgotten about and people bring it up all the time. Well, John's coming back. You don't talk about that. Look, it is what it is. He's done a lot of awful crap. We all know it. But the one thing about sports and MMA in general, mostly sports, is that these things are never forgotten, but it becomes sort of a further away storyline and the overall competitive story.

when you compete and when you win. And John Jones winning this fight and being the heavyweight champion, 100% is better for business. It's better for the UFC as a brand. It makes the division more interesting to fans. And we would probably get a fight between Jones and Steepay next, which would be a big deal.

But Joe, let me ask you this. What if he loses? What if John Jones loses on Saturday to Cyril Gone? Where do you go now? I mean, you've built this thing up for three years. you bolt up, you put on 50 pounds of exercise, all of this. You couldn't even say muscle, Mike. You couldn't say it.

It's not a bodybuilding competition, Jen. It's not a bodybuilding competition. But where does he go if he loses, Joe? Where does he go? I mean, I think he'll ride off him to the sunset because I think it's just too, unless he's going to want to show he's still dominant light heavyweight and go back. but we just talked about it. He just put on all this side.

It was a three-year process. I'm even more intrigued on what happens to the division because, yes, it was a close fight between Gahn and Francis, but it kind of taints the heavyweight title. And honestly, now that you're saying that, I'd really like to see that. Nothing against the UFC. I just kind of feel like the Joker.

I just kind of want to watch the division burn, you know, and just see the chaos and see Steve-be come back and get his due, you know? So for John, I think he's such an X-factor. He could pull the whole, the humble, and actually do it and come back in six months and fight again, or we may never see him again. He may not be able to take the fact that now he's tainted, he can't claim that he's the pound for pound number one and all that stuff

because he actually went to the other division, especially after Volcanowski's performance in showing he's kind of still right up there at the pound for pound top. But I think in the division, it's even more intriguing because you're like, okay, so now what happens? We're kind of brightened off steep because the UFC kind of wrote him out of the script. You know, Francis is gone, and now we have this guy that just beat the guy. what happens. So I think all the way

around, I think it could kind of be a very bitter end for John to kind of make the division need quite a bit to recoup. You know, I think it'll take some time. So I'm very intrigued by that. Jed, what if John Jones loses on Saturday? What if he loses this fight? What do we do?

It'll be the funniest thing in the world. It will be, it would be just prime. Like, all this trash talk, all this Francis This was scared of me, bullshit narrative. And then he comes and loses.

It would be, it would be great. It probably won't happen because that's not how the MAA gods work. But if he loses, Mike, you know the answer to this, right? Like, we've talked about it. It's pretty obvious. He can't go back to a heavyweight. He'd like, look at him. He's not making 205 anymore.

Fortunately, there's the rematch we've been clamoring for. All of us have been asking. for this rematch at heavyweight from way back in the day. He happens to be under UFC contract, a little man by the name of Parker Porter, Mike. We can finally get the Parker Porter rematch. That's what's next. Parker, I am confident Parker Porter at heavyweight

can make it longer than the 36 seconds that he made the first time around. Oh, my gosh. Wow. All right. Well, you just teed that one up way too easy. I mean, I thought you're going to say, hey, look, Steve-A has one more fight left. He could fight John Win or lose, but I didn't expect the Paca Porta card to be played at this point in the proceedings. We got to build John back up after this loss.

For the heavy-weightiest heavyweight title? Oh, it would be the best. Oh, man. All right. Well, there's a lot more at the UFC 285. So let us move on to the rest of this ridiculous card. The point for round three goes to. I mean, Jed just stole it with that match.

It's two to one. You know how to play to the audience. Yeah, you know how to play to the host. You know how it works. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ,

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the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering, start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Uh, so rest of this main car, we have Valentina Shifchenko looking for flyway title defense number eight against Alexe Grasso. We have Shafcott Rachmana versus Jeff Neal. We have Matush Gamrov versus Jailin Turner and we have the UFC debut of Boe Nickel. against Jamie Pickett. Jay, let me start with you. How does this main card stack up to a lot of the others we've had

in the last 12 to 14 months? Because this one really sticks out to me. Oh, it's the best. I think, was it 280? Was that the Islam Charles Olivera fight card? Yes. That was a really good main card. But that's like the only one,

honestly, within the last year that I can think. that sort of rivals what 285s got going on. I mean, two title fights are arguably, you know, if John Jones wins, there will be certainly plenty of people saying that he's the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Valentina Shibchenko is the top female palm-for-pound fighter in the world. So at the top of the billing, you've got everything you could want, two all-time greats. If Shepchenko wins this one, I think she ties John Jones for most consecutive title defenses.

number three or four on the list. So the top of the bill is as good as it gets. I don't know if we're going to specifically talk about, you know, the Matush Garmat, Jalen Turner fight. But that fight is my everything. So I couldn't be more excited about that fight. I mean, Jeff Neal, Shavkar, Rakmanov, fights a banger. And you've got Bo Nichael.

This is a squash match, but it's a squash match for the best prospect in the sport. right so it's that this main card is as good as it gets uh i struggle to think of many cards that have ever been had a better main card the rest of the card it's a slow burn as you say mike uh some of the early prelims are uh don't get your blood boiling in any kind of way but the later prelims are mostly pretty good and the main card the card you actually have to pay the money for it's as good as you can ever expect to get so uh this is one of the rare weekends mike i normally come on this program or on any of our other programs and say if you got something else to do if you need to go apple picking if the wife wants you to spend some time with the family just tune into mvindon.com

great website we'll keep you covered and you can do those other obligations not this weekend i don't care what you have. You know, you can skip out on that work party. It's unnecessary because you want to be watching 285 on Saturday. Joe, as a fan, how good is this main card? I think it's spectacular. You know what I mean? I think they're doing a really good job of bundling, you know, I think that Matush

and Jalen Turner fight is in the perfect slot because it could be a, you know, not that he didn't have a great fight against Arroosh, but it could be, you know, the bounceback. of Matush, Gamrot, or not that everyone in the sport who follows the sport religiously knows who Jalen Turner is, but this could propel him into that top ranking where he's going to be getting talks of, you know, the big

fights that seem to be, you know, kind of impossible to get unless you're already in the end crowd, the Michael Chandler's, Porreys, all those guys. So, you're kind of bundling him underneath John Jones, where you know, everyone's tuning in and now this will be the coming out party for him, or it'll put Gamrot right back in the

mix where same thing for him, he can start getting those fights outside of, you know, the really dangerous but lesser known fights. Same thing with Shafcott. He's kind of, obviously, everybody that follows him a may like that knows who he is and what he's capable of, but we haven't seen him in that big slot yet. And obviously, I think they have their, you know, who they want to win that, which I think would be him. But same thing for Neal.

If he comes out and upsets him, I mean, that's a coming out party for Jeff Neal. That puts him right back into the top rankings where, you know, he can go on a run. And I think obviously we know what they're doing with Bo. You know, I'm teammates with Jamie. There's no, that's not a secret, but we know what that's supposed to be. You know, they're putting them on the opening of the bill for that reason. They want the world to be introduced to the best prospect of MMA what they think it's going to be. So, you know, whether it happens or not, I feel like they set themselves up for pretty much it's going to be successful for the UFC no matter what entertaining for the fans.

There's going to be a ton of talk about. And even if it goes that way and then John, Jones and Cyril Gone super boring. That's going to draw tons of controversy. It's a great weekend for fight fans. I think it's also a great weekend for the UFC because they kind of win no matter what the outcome is. Other than Cyril Gahn, maybe going out there and running through John Jones, that would

just be hilarious for the fans, not so much for the brass of the UFC. But other than that, they're going to generate new stars. They're going to get a ton of eyes. There's going to be a ton of talk about it this weekend, which some of the cards, you know, even the paper music can go under the radar. This is not one of them. Joe, I mean, I'm going to take the main event. I'm taking the Bo-Nickel Jamie Pickett fight off the table as well

because Jamie's your teammate and you're going to watch it anyway. So if there's one other fight outside of those that you are watching, you can only watch one. What do you pick it? Are you picking the Valentina fight? Are you picking the one in your division that you just talked about? Shofcott's a big deal. There's some good prelim fights on there that are interesting and actually matter.

So where are you at? You can only watch one fight. You can't pick the main event. Can't pick a teammate. What do we watch them? Yeah. It depends. It depends if I'm home with my wife.

then she gets to press in her. She's going to want to watch Valentina. I didn't know this until, like, one fight ago of her. She's like, she's one of my old-time favorites. How does you not know that? I'm like, because I don't...

She's dominant, and she's so dominant, I don't really care when she fights because I figure she's going to win. But if it's my choice, I'm going Jalen Turner and Matuch. I just... You look at the performance

that Matush just had against Darush. It was a spectacular fight, you know. And Jalen Turner is an X-factor, man. He can go out there and get, you know, taken down and control. But he's also, has great jihitsu. He's got, you know, super fantastic boxing. And I really, that's a pick-um

for me. I have no idea who's going to win. And that's what makes fights fun to watch, right? Not to mention, it's in my division. So it's always more intriguing. But, you know, they're way above me. But I think that's the fight. You know, I think that's going to be the one that could honestly end up being the one that steals the show. But for me, that's definitely the one I'm most interested in. Jed, I think you're probably going to piggyback on this because you said that's your everything. You're writing it love letters. It's the best fight. that fight's incredible. The only very small downside to that fight is that it's short notice, right?

Like, good for Dan Hooker because he was about to get his ass beat, so he avoided an ass whooping. But Matush Gamrock coming in on short notice is the old. But he still had like a month as Gamrod. He's a psychopath. I doubt that this is really going to influence or affect him at all. This fight rules. I talked about this on No Bet's Bard, right? So this fight honestly looks a lot like Matush Gamra is kind of like a supercharged version of Matt

Frivola right and Jalen Ternett fought Matt Frivolta and when I went back and I was watching that fight it was like this fight's really good why didn't it went five the night because it didn't get any and then I realized that oh that fight actually happened at UFC 236 which was the event where the top two fights of 2019 were with Israel Dissinia Kelvin Gastilum and then Max Dustin two I was at that event. And yeah, those were the two best fights of 2019 and like of the 15 best fights ever. So that fight kind of flew under the radar in there.

But that was before Jalen Turner was really good. And that fight was awesome. Now we get a better version of Matt Favola, basically, a Matouche Gamrot and a better version of Jalen Turner. The fight is going to be bananas. I could not be more excited to watch this one go down. I've been really high on Gamrod in general.

but I've been even higher on Turner. I've said that I think that he is going to win a title, certainly fight for the lightweight belt at some point in time, and I just cannot wait for this fight. Like, if I could only watch one fight this weekend, it wouldn't even be the main event. It would absolutely be this fight. Some high praise.

All right. Last thing, Jed, bold prediction for anything that happens on this card. Oh, bold, anything that happens on this card, bold prediction I don't know how bold this is but he is a betting underdog and not a small one I think Jalen Turner is going to beat

Matush Gamrodt I love Jalen Turner I believe Jalen Turner like I said gonna fight for about one day he's six foot three Mike it doesn't make sense how he's a lightweight

he's got great boxing got great power sneaky grappler and he has tarantial arms so he could sneak chokes in out of nowhere he's six three he's got

He's the future of this division. I'm sorry, Joe. You get him now, Joe. Win a fight and call him out now because he's only going to be more. He's 27. He's only going to be a bigger problem moving forward. So he's apparently, he's actually like a decent size betting underdog, and I'm picking him to beat Matush Camrod.

So that will be my shocker of the evening. Joe, what do you got? Out of the box, bold take. I think the UFC heavyweight title. loses value over the weekend. That's my prediction. I think it's either going to be one-way traffic for Cyril or a boring fight that no matter who wins, you're like, oh, they're not the rightful champion. And I think it leaves it in kind of chaos. I know it doesn't usually work that way. That's what, you know, we talked about earlier. It never just seems to go the way it's supposed

to go. But I think, I think this is the time. I think the UFC title is not, for the first time, probably ever, the heavyweight champion in the UFC is not the bad as heavy on the planet. Oh, I like it. All right. Mike, do you know who the third tallest man on this fight card is? It's the lightweight. It's the lightweight. There are two heavy weights and then a bunch of middle weights who are all smaller than this man.

All right. Well, something to know for you statistical gurus out there. All right. Point for round four. Drum roll, please. Joe Selecky. It's two to two. And you know what that means?

We got time for one more question. It's the knockout round. One minute apiece for each of these individuals to answer the same question. And once that is done, you can go in the poll M.Afighting.com's YouTube channel, which is probably been up there for a minute and vote for who you think's going to win.

We'll bring Casey in. He will announce the winner. So Jed, you have the prerogative, my man. Are you going first? Are you passing it over? a la Price is right to Joe's like you. Oh, I'll go first. Why not? All right.

I have no idea what you're even going to ask this time. I mean, it seems pretty clear since we didn't talk about this. And because Joe's back on the show, it's only fitting that some weird, wacky, out of nowhere, BKFC news comes to permission. Because that's what happened the last time Joe was on the show. We found out yesterday on the MMA hour, with our good pal, Ariahawani,

BKFC President Dave Feldman comes on and made some big announcements. They have signed Luke Rockhold and Eddie Alvarez, both former UFC champions to the promotion. They will both compete at BKFC 41 in Colorado, April 29th.

Luke Rockhold will fight Mike Perry and Eddie Alvarez will fight Chad Mendez. So Jed, one minute. Your reaction to this, were you surprised by this? Is this the right? move is this good is this bad does it make you feel good does it make you feel icky one minute go i'm super surprised i don't if anyone had this on their 2023 bingo card congratulations you're a hero uh let's start

the eddie alvarez chad minda's fight seems pretty fun right like i don't have any issues with that not hearing the way eddie talked about it you know he's still open to pursue other options this he's just excited about this one cool uh the luke mike perry is the real curveball we're just talking about big tall dudes. Mike Perry's 510, Luke's like 6.3. These guys aren't in the same weight class. Granted, Luke Rockhold doesn't like to get hit with left hooks and Mike Perry can at least throw one. That's just a very weird fight that doesn't make any sense to me. But this is great work from BKFC. I'm going to tune in to watch. I watch them anyway because BKFC's generally pretty fun, but you're giving me a bunch of people that I at least have a history and know.

and even if they're fights that are a little odd or maybe don't make total sense, this is better than Diego fighting a former boxer. And this is going to do big numbers for them. So this is great, super for it. Are you saying, Jed, are you putting out a stat that Luke Rockhold and Jalen Turner are the same height? Same height.

They are the same height, Mike. Tall middleweight Luke Rockhold is the same height as lightweight Jalen Turner. If you stood Jalen Turner next to Cyril Gahn and John Jones, he's like here. It is that difference. Like it's insane that this man makes 1-5-5. Oh, man. Speaking of making 1-5-5, Joe did that last weekend and won a big fight.

But last time you were on, it was when we were, we found out MVP was fighting Mike Perry and BKFC. Mike Perry versus Michael Venom page. And now we get another Mike Perry announced. It's fighting Luke Freakin-Rocold, April. 225. He signed with the promotion. Eddie Alvers signed with the promotion. Former UFC lightweight champion. He's fighting Chad Mendez. What is your reaction to this

a day after this big announcement? Joe, are you in on this? Do you feel a certain way? One minute on the clock. Go. Well, I mean, it's funny that the two times I've been on the show have been the two, only two announcements from BKFC I've been like interested in. I don't hate Rockhole

Mike Perry. It kind of makes sense in a weird way. But the only thing about it is, I think this poor decision-making by Rockhold, he just had trouble in a fight where he was getting hit a bunch, and it was at high elevation. So what does he, and he gassed out completely? So what does he do come into, you know, a different sport against the guy whose wheelhouse is kind of in, is Mike Perry at high elevation in Colorado. I think that's foolish. It made me sad at first, Freddie Alvarez, but then I realized, like, he's really intelligent financially from all the people I've ever talked to

that are pretty close to him and know him. So it made me sad more so for the sport that for a guy who's want a title on pretty much everything he's ever done, except one, that this was the highest bidder, you know? It could also be kind of a bucket list thing for him, so obviously he's a grown man, he can make his decision. But I just, even though Chad Mendez is older, we know that Eddie doesn't really subscribe the whole performance enhancing drug thing. Can't say the same for Chad, given the failure in the past and how he looks right now.

So it just seems like a bit of a mismatch, but I definitely will watch that, actually, which would probably be the second time I've ever watched Bear Nuckle other than having some teammates' fight. So, uh, I don't hate it. I like it, but just kind of weird out of nowhere. Yeah. Someone, someone asked me earlier this morning, like, why would BKFC do this? Like, it just seems wrong. I'm like, well, think about what the other option could have been. You're going to get Luke Rockhold against Mike Perry, who Luke's going to be the bigger fighter. And the other option was Luke signs with Bellator and Johnny Evelyn takes him down and just beats the brakes off of him. So you kind of pick your poison. And

That's kind of, like, those are the two options. I'm pretty here for Luke Rockhold versus Johnny Eublin, if we're being real, though. I mean, that's why I said Johnny should have called Luke out after he won that last night. Pretty here for that. But now I thought you were going to say the actual true option, which is Luke Rockhold versus Francis and Ghana, it would be KFC. Which is, I'm also here for, but for very different reasons. Fair. All right. Well, get your votes in, get those in.

Casey is going to jump on in a minute. I got to waste some time here, and then we'll bring Casey in. So tomorrow we'll have a preview show. Well, the weigh-in show for UFC 285. Noon Eastern, I believe that is going down. So you can watch it right here on this channel live as it happens. Jose Young's, our colleague, is in Las Vegas right now. So he will have the camera on the fighters as they weigh in.

We'll have a preview show 3 p.m. tomorrow. Ceremony weigh-ins. all that fun stuff. We will be ready to go. I believe there's a Q&A happening tomorrow as well. So we'll have video on that. Saturday, off to New York. It'll be myself and GC in the MMA Hour studio.

UFC 285 watch party. Let's go. 9.45 p.m. Eastern Time. Join us for. I'll be there. Jed will be there too. Why, Jed? Why are you going to be there?

We're going all in on Chivchenko, baby. Woo! I don't learn lessons. I do the same things over and over again. So we're going to watch Jed possibly sweat out losing all of his money on Valentin Shipchenko. It'll be must see TV. He's the easiest fight of my gambling career.

You must see TV. Don't miss it. It's going to be a lot of fun. I remember you saying that about Rose Domitius versus Carla Sparza, and, well, that didn't happen. Look, I didn't realize that Rose would be abducted by aliens and have her brain replaced with someone who is absolutely opposed. to hurting other people.

Fair. Fair. Well, people's free fight show. Saturday's going to be crazy. Post-fight show press conference and then Saturday. We'll get a couple hours sleep and then AK and I will be back. We'll be live on the YouTube channel, 11 a.m. for a live edition of On to the next one, matchmaking following UFC 285.

And then we'll recap it all next week. So, Casey, do we, are we good? Or is this really, really close? Where are we at here? I think we're good. I think we have a winner. Okay. I think we're good.

Tell us, Casey. Please. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Casey, you're not even going to put yourself in the corner? Oh, hold on. Geez. I'm fixing my hair.

All right. Ooh. Come on, guys. Get your votes in. Get your votes in. Oh, it's getting close, isn't it? It's getting closer. Yeah, yeah.

All right. Yeah. Got to pick a winner. All right, here we go. Your winner today. Oh, first of all, great matchup. Just incredible high-level competition. I loved it.

I loved it. But someone has to lose. Your winner, today with 54% of the votes is Jedmishu. Close battles. It was the Parker Porter call out. Perfectly times. And maybe it was just, you know, just spamming Jalen Turner's height compared to other fighters of his height or lesser heights

throughout the program. I'm just saying it. That's wild, though, right? That he's the third tallest dude on this card. That is pretty wild. Jed, 30 seconds. Have that, my man. Guys, this weekend is what it's all about, right?

Like, I am among the most aggressive in decrying when fight cards are poop. That's not this weekend, man. Like this is, this is why you're a fan. This is, this feels like an international fight week only it's in March. And we have another pay-per-view in two weeks. Enjoy this month, everybody, because this is, this is why it is fun to follow this sport, to be engaged with the sport and to love this sport. So I'm just genuinely, really excited about 285 and next weekend and the weekend after that.

And the rest of this month, it's, let's go. Let's get after it. Yes. This is a very good time to be an MMA fan. Joe, sorry, didn't go your way, but, you know, the one that really mattered, it did go your way and you got a bunch of extra bonus money. Even if you won this, you wouldn't have gotten anything except just 38 seconds of extra camera time. But anything you want to say before we say goodbye?

No, it was awesome to be here. I'm going to go back to the drawing board and I'm going to come back and I'm going to get that win back. That's all I can do. Ah, I love this guy. Love this guy. Well, thank you very much. Casey, you can hit the exit music. We are done.

Thank you for joining us. Buckle up. It's going to be a very busy couple of days here at MAFighting.com. So stick with us. We appreciate you very much. Back next week to recap UFC 285 and I'm sure much more chaos that will happen in the MMA space. So for Jed, for Joe, for Casey on the ones and twos, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn. Perhaps we'll take you home.

I hope she does. We're done. Thank you for joining us. We're back next week. Good. Everybody. This has been between the links. and I'm a fighting production on the Vox Media Network.

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