MMA Fighting - BTL | Jose Aldo Retires, UFC Vegas 60 Fallout, Bellator Dublin, More

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is turning the page to the next chapter of his life after a stellar career inside the octagon. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to Aldo's retirement, the legacy he left behind, and the matchup that got away. Additionally, topics include Cory Sandhagen's TKO win over Cory Sandhagen in the main event of UFC Vegas 60, his path to getting to a bantamweight title shot, and where he currently sits on the totem pole, the talking points of this past Saturday's card, Bellator Dublin this Friday — which includes Benson Henderson vs. Peter Queally in the main event, along with Yoel Romero vs. Melvin Manhoef in the co-main event — and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Jose Youngs. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Between the Links. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links.

Thank you for joining us on this non-UFC fight week. But the beauty of this sport is there's still a lot to talk about. A lot of news items to get to. Plus, at the end of the program, an announcement, a big time announcement. So don't go anywhere. This is a big one. But we have a matchup this week. These guys have had quite the rivalry on this show over the last couple of years.

So let us introduce the participants first. Fresh off his win against Shaheen al-Shadi. He has proven that he has Shaheen's number. He's the co-host of No Betz Bard, and damn they were good. Mr. No Gray area himself, Jed Mishu is back on the program. Hello, sir. Is there really that much to talk about? Like, we got one thing, two, if you really want to pretend that Corey Santaghan's interesting.

And that's it. And then I hear there fights this weekend in Ireland, but I don't know. None of them look particularly noteworthy, but I guess we'll get into it. All right. to see you're excited. Back on the show, a man, a man who's behind the newest program on the M.A. Fighting Podcast Network, it is called Anything But Fighting. It's been a show that has been in the works for quite some time.

The first episode dropped on YouTube earlier this week. And also, wherever you find your favorite pods. Special guest this week was Joseph Benavides. Let us say hello to the host of that program from M.A.fighting.com, Mr. Jose Young. Hello, my friend. Welcome back. What's up, guys? Corey Sanhagen is infinitely interesting.

He carries around a samurai scroll. He believes in Bigfoot. He's a big Wooten clan fan. He's open to all religions, and he happens to be much richer with a win bonus last Saturday. So, Corey's hanging is infinitely interesting. Maybe he'll be on the show later on. Sure. I mean, he's a good fighter, but, like, I...

Of all the people at Bannonweight, he's probably the least... I mean, other than Rod Volishvili. He's probably the least interesting band and white contender. Like, let's just be real. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just, it is what it is. I would like to thank Jose, though, if we can before we get started.

Because I listen to his new program, anything but fighting. It's an excellent show. You should go check that out in the MMA Fighting Podcast Network. And I'd like to thank him because previously I was the person who put together nearly two hour-long podcasts that shouldn't have been that long. And now we've got other people. joining in so I feel less lonely because you know Mike you keep this to a tight hour long BTL most of the time so I love it that we've got

got some more people going for the for the big picture that's what we needed in this podcast network well there we go coming together so the nicest you two have been to each other on the show ever but maybe that'll change and speaking of interesting bantam weights one of the most interesting bantam weights is no longer fighting in the division or in the UFC or in MMA in general,

because we're going to start with Jose Aldo. We found out on Sunday. He is moving on from the UFC. He is moving on from the sport of MMA. The former UFC and WEC featherweight champion has announced his retirement from the sport following his decision loss to Marabda Walsh, Willie at UFC 278 last month.

I mean, what else can be said? What a career. What a legend. What a run that that man has had. So, Jose, let us begin with you. It's Sunday. You're probably getting ready for a slate of football games, maybe producing a podcast or two.

And then this news comes out. How did you react to it? It was bombed out. I also, it's always jarring when someone says the Bannamweight division is losing a contender because Jose Aldo is the greatest featherweight of all time. And that goes without saying. So yeah, I get he is a quote unquote Bannamweight contender leaving the division.

But now that he's gone, we're just going to talk about Josealdo being the greatest featherweight ever. caught me off guard because I was under the assumption when they announced that Rio card around the time he lost him or Rob Devalage Lully. I was under the assumption that he'd probably fight there and then retire. And then his coach, Andre Paternarris, obviously said that he wanted Jose Al to retire all the way back on UFC 200 when they didn't make the Khan McGregor rematch. And then now he assumed that his fighter would fight in Rio in January and then call it a career. he is the Prince of Rio after all. So the timing caught me off guard because it was a random Sunday.

There were no fights. He still had one fight left on his contract. The UFC was going back to his home city to launch UFC fight pass there. You'd assume that they would want kind of this big send-off for him in the arena that he's had so many magical moments. So the timing caught me off guard, but not surprised he retired. I assumed he was going to retire in the next six months anyway. Just surprised that it happened. this past Sunday, especially given they're going back to Rio soon.

Jed, we'll get into legacy and all of that in a moment, but you have been a guy who has not only been on the Aldo train, you've had a first class ticket on the Aldo train for quite a while now. It's Sunday, maybe the Falcons are getting ready to lose a football game. How did you react to this news? One, I'm not a Falcons fan, so they were. I was mostly mad in that regard that Arthur Smith seems to hate Kyle Pitts, and that's really effing with my fantasy program,

but that's neither here nor there. I was legitimately sad, and I don't get all that sad about MMA things generally. Like usually you know when it's coming. And like Jose said, it's not shocking that he is walking away in the grand scheme of things. It's pretty surprising he's walking away in this context

because there is the upcoming Rio card, send the king of Rio out, give him a squash match and do it. We shouldn't have given him a squash match because what we should have given him was a Bannamway title fight. Because immediately after being sad, what I was was furiously angry at whatever jackass decided we should have Jose Aldo fight in Utah. Because I maintained that Aldo won that fight so we're clear. But even doing it is stupid. And the fact that that is the last time we're going to watch inarguably what.

one of the five greatest fighters of all time. I have him much higher in that ranking. That's not how he should go out. He should have gone out with a title fight. It would have been totally reasonable to say, Aldo's got next up for the winner of TJ versus Aljo. Or, I mean, it would have been better just to have him get the title shot instead of TJ.

But either way, he shouldn't have had to fight Marab at altitude. That's just a ridiculous, stupid thing they did. And it wasted what could have been. have been one of the all-time great moments in the history of this promotion, in the history of this sport. Because can you imagine how incredible it would be for Jose Aldo, knowing he is going to retire should he win, to go to Rio for one last time, one last fight with one last belt on the line, a chance

to become, what's the fifth or sixth person to win belts in multiple divisions and etch his name even further on the Mount Rushmore fighters. That was taken from us for literally the stupidest reason possible because Davao Svilei isn't even a contender because his best friend is a freaking champion. I make fun of the UFC a lot for just sucking at their job because as far as promotion goes, they are dog shit at it and that's just the truth.

This was one of the most egregious moments in recent memory of just how bad they are at a thing that they are ostensibly supposed to be good at. And it's really, really frustrating that this is the end. Now, when these things happen, Jed, we talk about legacy, we talk about resumes, we talk about the goat stuff, all-time rankings. And to me, it is inarguable, although is right now the greatest featherweight of all time. Some people might argue that, but they would be wrong in arguing that.

But feel free to build upon that, because I know you've talked about it on the show a bunch already, but now that we are turning the page here. And also, you mentioned that you said arguably he is the top five ever. He's higher on your list. Where is he at on your list all time and why? If you don't have him in your top five fighters, I do not. And I'm sure that Jose will come and say that these things are stupid because in some regards they are. But it's also a lot of my living is debating dumb things like this. So I'm cool with it. If you don't have them in your top five. It's cool.

That's fine. That's an opinion. I will now no longer consider any opinion you have in this regard valid. It is just that way. Like there's, if results matter, there's, you can't, you can't not have them in the top five. I have them second all time. I will peel back the curtain here. You said that I host a second podcast.

Damn, they were good. We're doing a damn they were good on Jose Aldo. In fact, it's done. It will be released tomorrow. It's going to be probably the longest thing ever put on the MMA fighting podcast network. So buckle up. It's a great time. And going into that, I thought Aldo's a top five, maybe a top three fighter, but I wasn't sold on it.

And then as I did the research and dug back into it, I'm just like, oh, actually, he's the second best fighter of all time. I am willing to accept arguments that Demetrius Johnson is above him. the only person I put above him is George St. Pierre. I think if you want to say Demetrius Johnson or Anderson Silva or John Jones, I'm those are at least understand the arguments, even if I don't agree with them. To me, he's the second greatest fighter of all time based purely on the, if I could have any fighter's career, and that's kind of the broad lens I choose to view this argument through, you want George St. Pierre's career.

I don't think that anyone should be able to argue he has. has had the best MMA career of all time. And for me, the one I won after that would be Josaldo. He did it all at two weight classes, much more than GSP did it at two weight classes. He fought through three, arguably four eras of multiple divisions. He is by some metrics, the longest reigning, like the longest 10-year champion in UFC history. We get into all this in the podcast. It's just his resume, he's,

third all-time in title defenses. Like his resume is unparalleled. And he's the most important fighter beneath 155 pounds, certainly, probably beneath 175, like, pounds all time. So second-grade is fighter of all time for me. Jose, I mean, these lists are always kind of strange to put together because it's all personal preference and stuff. But where is he?

Is he top five? Can you put him as high as number two like Jed? did what do you think now that his career is apparently shifting gears oh he's definitely top five uh i guess it would just depend on how you would quantify uh the greatness of him like for me george st pierre's the greatest uh and after that i think there's like an big argument for number two i'm not going to argue against joseaaldo being number two solely because he was one of these few fighters that it didn't really matter who it was he was just down to fight and i to me i enjoy those types of champions a lot more than champions trying to, you know, make these super fights, these

fights between divisions, just like next man up, let's run it. I'm a huge fan of that. So for me, if, like, Josealdo kind of exemplified that, he was just like, who am I fighting? Chad Mendes is great. Great. Ricardo Lammis, cool. Frankie Aguir again, let's do it. Marab, who no one wants to fight and is probably not fighting for the title next, I'm game.

So I hold Josealdo in high regards in terms of that. in terms of like talent clearly top five i'll agree with jed pretty much anything 155 or below joe it's pretty much like josie aldo bj pinner like the most important fighters in terms of growing the sport i don't know where i'm going to put him in my top five uh i can make an argument for him being five i can make an argument for him being number two my top five would probably be gs p one and then after that it's some sort of combination of anderson john josialdo demetrius johnson johns ildo demetrius johnson and I'm like faydor has to be like a 5a 5b like he has he's in my top 5 2 but very clearly the greatest 145 or ever like even max holloway at media day everyone's talking about oh are you the greatest and

max hollow he's like are we forgetting about jos aaldo so the guy that everyone's trying to make an argument for is not having it he's still claiming josie aldo is the greatest ever i described him as your favorite fighter's favorite fighter because when he retired i don't think there was a single person to have anything disparaging to say to him and outside side of Con McGregor selling a fight, it's been pretty cordial between his opponents. Like, we've all seen the videos of the embeddeds and everything of when Josealdo fought Pedro Munoz in Houston. And like Angela Hill was like going up to Joseo and like geeking out. Odei Osborne went up and asked for a photograph.

I remember Demetrius Johnson was on the Joe Rogan experience and he said, I just want to take a leg kick from Josealdo once. Good on you, Demetrius Johnson, for facing death in the face. but he's just one of those fighters that fighters hold in high regard. So clearly top five, where he is in my top five, I'm not quite sure yet. Jose, what's the Josealdo fight that got away for you? What fight do you wish he had in the UFC that we didn't get? It could be a fresh matchup, could be a rematch, what have you, which fight do you wish we could have seen before his career ultimately came to a close?

I think for in terms of being a prize fighter, the rematch against Connor, which he definitely deserves when he beat Frank Edgar at UFC 200 for the interim title. And he could have held out. But he again, he fought Max Holloway to unify the belts and then fought him again in Detroit. I think that's for the prize fighting one. But selfishly, I just want to see the WEC never die fight between Dominic Cruz. They're very clearly the two greatest fighters to come out of the WEC. And I just wanted that super fight more than anything. was one of those fights that

we've all interviewed Dominic Cruz at least one point in our careers and he's always trying to fight up. If he's not the champion, he wants to fight up. He wants to fight above him in the rankings.

But if you brought up Josie Aldo and if say there was a point in time when Dominic Cruz was ranked above Aldo, he was always like, I'll fight Josie Aldo. He was seemed to be the one guy that he would fight down, he would fight down for.

So selfishly, I really wanted that WEC super fight between Cruz and Aldo. I wanted it when they were in the WEC. I wanted them when they were both champions of 135, 145. And then when Josealdo dropped to 135,

I wanted that to be the first fight made and we just never got it. And it's one of those fights that it's one of those fights that I'm super disappointed we're never going to get. And I really hope Dom Cruz, Frank Edgar is not in that category too when it's all said and done.

Jed, what say you? I mean, you and I are both an agreement that the Marab fight was dumb and you should have fought for the belt before he retired. And that didn't happen. So is it Sterling for the belts, the one that got away? Is it Cruz? Is it somebody else? What do you think? We have a category on Damn, they were good where we dive deep into this.

My choice, Jose landed on two good ones, right? Like, I'll talk about Don. My name is Jose. Jose. Sorry, there's a lot of Ozaying going on. It's different. I'm a gringo. You just got to let me go with it.

It's okay. Where was I? I'm going to talk about Dom last because I have differing thoughts there. First up, the one I wanted the most was Aljo. Because I think he wins the fight. I've been saying it for a long time. I believe that that is a bad matchup for Al Jermaine Sterling. And you could have sent this dude out with the second belt and all the flowers he deserves.

So that's probably my number one. I also, I agree, I wanted the Connor rematch just because I know a bunch of her idiots, there's 13 seconds or whatever, and all of you can just rot in hell, I want to see that fight actually take place because yes, Connor won, but if they do that fight 10 times, that that's not the outcome. And Connor maybe still wins more than loses, but I think that was a really interesting stylistic matchup that I would have liked to see. the thing we ultimately settled on after I had argued so strongly on the show for Al Jermaine was Dominic Cruz. Because I didn't care about the Dom Cruz fight because I know how the fight's going to go.

He's not as good as Jose Aldo. That's just the world we live in. Dominic Cruz will not beat Jose Al do a fist fight. So it was less interesting to me. But what should have happened after the UFC did this stupid Marab thing that as we've accomplished, incredibly dumb, one of the worst ideas in recent memory. After this happens and Jose comes to them and is like, hey, I want to retire. And they be like, hey, man, what if you don't?

What if instead we give you a big bag of money and you take that big bag of money and you go to Rio and you fight one last fight in Rio. And what we're also going to do is we're going to take another big bag of money and we're going to give it to Dominic Cruz. And he's also going to go to Rio. I know he doesn't want to fight you in Rio because whatever, but we do that. And then both of you bring your WEC belts with you to Rio. And it is for the king lifelong champion of all WEC everything. And we could bring Todd Harris out of wherever the hell he is right now and put him in the booth.

And we can get the blue cage and the blue mat. And just for one shining example of the UFC being fun and creative, send the fucking hero Jose Aldo out in the way that he deserves. and it never would have happened, but that will now always be the thing that could have happened and that I will think the most of. Because how friggin' dope would that have been?

I do want to touch on this real quick, speaking of retirements, because Kevin Holland decided to throw us a little bit of a curveball this morning. This whole thing's very strange because if you follow his Instagram stories, it starts with him reposting the rumored fight between Daniel Rodriguez

in Neil Magni for October 15th, which by the way, I am told that fight is not even agreed upon. So that's not done yet. So he was not happy about that. He was like, I just asked for this fight. Why am I not getting it?

He still could because that fight is not even agreed upon yet. We're far away from saying this is a done deal. But then he says, I'm done. I'm almost 30. I just got a big huge bag of money. And with what this guy has done, Jed, the last couple of years, he could retire and be just fine,

and he could do a lot outside of fighting because he's a very marketable dude. So do you think there's any chance he's serious at all? No, zero. I honestly have no idea how many opportunities he has outside the cage. Maybe he has some, but I don't think he's at a level of stardom, or unless he, like, is actually good at something else, like he's like a really good actor or whatever,

those opportunities tend to dry up the further way you get from the thing that butters your bread. But butters his bread as cage fighting. I think Connor McGregor has done a lot of great things for the sport and is certainly partially responsible for the fact that I get to do this with my life. And that's dope. He's also responsible for a lot of just incredibly stupid and dumb and awful things in this sport, one of which is the fake retirement because you're pitching a fit because you didn't get the exact thing you wanted or whatever. not to stand the UFC because I frequently mock them as bad at their jobs and assholes. But like this feels entirely, well, now I'm retired, dur-da-dur.

Like, you're not retired. Just why are we pretending? There's no need to do this. It's cool. Unless he won the lottery. I don't know, it's Wednesday, don't they? Or it's Thursday. Don't they pull the lottery on Wednesdays or whatever?

Like maybe he hit the lotto. And if you did, hell yeah, retire, buddy. I would, y'all would never see me again if I won 300, million dollars. Jose, any chance this is an actual thing? Maybe today, because as we all know, fighters are incredibly sensitive and they say a lot of things because a lot of people have like, remember like freaking Marlon Moray is retired like a month ago and now he's in PFL.

So I'm assuming maybe today Kevin is feeling some type of way because he's upset. He didn't get the D-Rod fight. But Kevin Holland buys a lot of expensive shoes. and he buys a lot of cars. And he's one of these guys that he said, you know, the UFC take cares of me because I fight all the time. And then remember Luke Rockhold is kind of like, Kevin,

you don't really know what you're talking about. If Kevin is saying the UFC takes care of me because I fight a lot, and then all of a sudden he's not fighting and he's not getting all that income that he makes, I'm assuming the majority of his money from, he's probably going to have to fight again. Now I'm also assuming Kevin Holland has a lot of fingers

in different businesses, especially in the Texas area, especially as he said he got paid. Whether those succeed or not, I'm not quite sure, but I'm going to assume that in a month, Kevin Holland's probably going to be not only back in the UFC. Actually, I'm going to say in like 48 hours, he's probably going to be back in the UFC.

Just probably today he's just feeling some type of way, but I expect him to be back soon. Well, we will see what happens. We will move on to one of the, I mean, it depends on how you look at it, one of the most interesting bannam weights in the world. Maybe not so. But the point for round one goes to,

Jose Young's. How could I not give him the point? Lots of Jose is going on, as Jed said. So let's move on to UFC Vegas 60. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrantz sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. 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, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. Corey Sanhagen gets a huge win over Song Yadong, and Jedd, I know that, as a result, you will never forget

since you cashed a big fat ticket on the Sanhagen by fourth round TKO prop. But he came in back to back losses against two very good fighters. He was in a must win situation in a lot of people's eyes. And he won. He got the job done on Saturday.

So it's a few days removed. What did you learn most about Corey Sanhagen after this win? That's a good question. I mean, he still got it. He still got the juice, right? I think Songy Dong's really good fighter, and he's going to be a guy who's, he is going to be a perennial top 10, top five guy at Bannon Way. He's still in 24.

Like, he still has a ton, incredibly athletic, got a good foundation of skills, room to grow and improve. Like, this, I think this kid is going to be a going concern in the division for some time. And Corey beat him. And I was really competitive fight. And honestly, mostly I felt like I learned more about song than I did about Corey. I liked that Corey made some adjustments kind of after how that TJ went fight tried to bring some of that in

the gamesmanship of the sport there and Songy Dunk is a very good defensive wrestler and Corey had success and that's not his normally his purview so I don't know that I learned too much other than that he still got it he still willing that he is willing to adapt and still kind of adding wrinkles to his game to improve and move forward.

And I also learned that he's really tough because Song-Yong hit the hell out of him. And he admitted he was like, dude, I was in a bad way. But, you know, after I got rocked in the Yon fight, I knew how to fight through this a little bit better. And so I was able to kind of keep my composure, figure it out work through it. And that's, that's good. It's honestly, like I said, though, for me, I learned a little bit more about song. I thought he had a high ceiling. I think he has a very high ceiling because I do regard.

Corey Sandhagan is a top five band-of-weight, and I thought Song gave as good as he got for most of that fight until the gigantic crater on his face really clearly started affecting him. But it was a very good fight, a solid performance, and I'm looking forward to seeing Corey Santagin fight Cheevera next because that fight will be dope. Jose, what say you? What was the biggest takeaway from the Sandman's big win on Saturday against a very good up? incoming fighter who proved he belongs fighting guys like Corey Sanhagan well Corey Sanhagan like we keep talking about Songu Dong being like what 24

25 and having this big break future Corey Sanang is only 30 like he's younger than everyone on this panel right now and he's still you know fighting at the highest level 30 is ancient in the band and weight division though so Corey Sanhagen what he showed me is he took a year off he took those two

he took that fight against CJ De DeLisot, which he essentially he did that because let's not forget, he had done enough to earn the title shot against the winner of the original fight between Al Jermaine Sterling and Peyoteer Yon after he flying need Frankie Edgar

into oblivion. Even Dominic Cruz on the broadcast said that's a title shot right there. But then after the tomfoolery of Peuterion breaking the rules and that being, you know, it going to Al Jemaine Sterling and I'm having to book the immediate rematch, T. Jadillo shot, he ended up saying fuck it.

Sorry about that, guys. I'm going to fight T.J. Dilleshaw inside the apex, quote unquote, lost, which I'll die on that hill that Corey Sanhagen won. And then took an interim fight against Peter Rihanna, a handful of months later, flew completely across the world and lost my pick for the 2020 fight of the year. So Corey's heading and took a bunch of time off, sharpen the tools, came back, adjusted on the fly because that first round, Song of Dong was hurting. Corey Sennhagan, especially in the guard. Like Corey Senniggan would block, Song-Yadong would land, and Corey Senn-Hagan would fly backwards. And he adjusted, he goes, well, I'm going to have to grapple a lot more.

So Corey Senn-Hagan showed me that he could, everything he did wrong against T.J. Dillishaw, he fixed in Song-N-Dong, and the fact that he had this game plan against T.J. Dillishaw, and he tried all of these things. And T.J. adjusted, and Corey Sending, kept trying to do the same thing, and I guess that's what cost him the fight.

Didn't mess around this time. After that first round, he adjusted his game plan and pulled out the win and got the quote unquote TKO win, even though it was a cut. It wasn't actually like one of those violent TKOs against the fence or anything like that. But Corey Zaneh improved that he can fix the things that made him fall at the finish line, I guess it was what I'm saying. So we have this big cluster at the top of this division, Jose. October 22nd, that's going to answer a ton of important questions at UFC 280.

we got the title fight between Sterling and Dilloshaw. We got the O'Malleyan fight. But there are many people who felt that even with the two losses heading into this past Saturday, they look at Corey Sanhagen as a guy that at some point, in his career, he is going to fight for the undisputed Bannonweight title in the UFC at some point. So I know that if there's somebody who dislikes hypotheticals more than you, I have never met this person or talked to this person. So I'm going to phrase it like this.

if you are team Corey Sanhagan right now, what is the best case scenario for him? How do the dominoes have to fall to get him to that title shot in the quickest possible way? Pure Jan has to win. And I don't think it really matters in the main event, but the title fight between Al Jermaine and T.J. I think the fight between Yon and O'Malley

is infinitely more important to the grand scheme of things in the band and weight division, obviously because Corey Sanhagan has losses to TJ Dulles shot and Al J. So I guess the first, his fight against Al Jermaine was, he obviously got put to sleep in the first round. So I guess, and then I guess a lot of people think including me he beat T.J. So maybe that's a lane you could take. But if Sean O'Malley beats Peter Rion, he's getting the next title shot, regardless of what happens in the rest of the division. So first off, Peter Yon needs to win.

Marab probably has to fight Peter Yon because they have some sort of beef. and Corey Sanhagen has to beat Marlon Vera in the main event of that Orlando card in December. And if all of those things happen, then I'm sure Corey Sanagan's fighting for Abandon Whitesell sometime in the first half of 2023. Damn, that'd be a much better main event than what we have now for that December 3rd card. Jed, what say you? You are team Sanhagan right now. Your job is to do whatever is possible to get your man to a title shot as fast as possible. but you can't just will it, things have to happen.

So what's the best case scenario for him? Fastest path to a title shot. Either Sean O'Malley has to win twice because I'm with Jose. If Sean wins, he is then going to fight for the belt. And if he knocks out Jan and then knocks out either T.J. or Aldo, there's Anne. San Hague has to win.

Let's start there. San Hagan has to fight Malenver. He's got to beat Marlon Barra. Preferably do it impressively. But he's just got to beat Marlon Verra. That's step one. Then Sean O'Malley has to win twice. I think that could probably put him in line for it.

I am, I disagree with Jose in that if Yon beats Sean O'Malley, Sean O'Malley, and T.J. Dillishaw beats Al J. D'Hermaine Sterling. It is going to be Peyoteerion versus T.J. Dillishaw. And Rob Valshili will just be the odd man out. and that's unfortunate for him. But they clearly just want Piotrion to have the belt. Like, they've obviously given him several opportunities to do so. And that is what will happen should T.J. beat Aljo.

So really, Sandhagen needs Aljo to win. And then if Aljo wins and Jan wins, then they'll do the Jan Marab. And then maybe Sandhagen can sneak in with a win. But he at least has to beat Malamara. And honestly, he probably, has to win two fights just because of he's like fourth or fifth on the totem pole because he's lost

to three of the dudes in front of him and it makes it a much tougher sell of only two wins. He needs a third win in there and that's unfortunate. That's just how it goes. Bannam weight is fun. It is interesting and we have all these different scenarios but October 22nd

is going to be one of the most important days in this division's I mean for this division in a long, long time and hopefully we get some answers to these questions. So let's move on to the rest of the card. Point for round two goes to damn he was good that round. Jedmishu. One to one. All right. So we haven't played this game in a while. We spent a lot of time on the retirements, the talk of retirements. So we're going to play this game. We'll make this round very simple. We haven't implemented the NHL three star system in quite some time on the show. So hope.

Jose, we're going to start with you, looking back at UFC Vegas 60, outside of Corey Sanhagen, who are the three stars from UFC Vegas 60 and why? Gregor Rodriguez, because freaking Action Bronson was talking about him on the MMA hour, and Action Bronson is actually a megastar across planet Earth and puts on fantastic music. So anytime there's any sort of cross into the actual mainstream, into MMA, especially if your name is Greg Rodriguez, who no... I am confident 1% of MMA fans new before this fight. And now they're not only are they talking about him

because he got a third eye between on his forehead, but Action Bronson's talking about him on the biggest MMA podcast in the world. I know everyone's getting a lot of people thought I would say like Andre Feely, Damon Jackson, this and that because of their stories and everything. That obviously holds a lot of water, but it's Action Bronson.

It's Greg Rodriguez. The dude, you know, everyone's talking about him after the main event. So the first answer is Greg Rodriguez, and then obviously Damon Jackson. That dude wasn't getting... That dude could have been fighting in France and Gano and he was going to win.

The man lost his brother. I can't even fathom going to work if you lose a family member. This dude not only went through a whole fight camp, but made sure that his family wasn't texting him updates and all this stuff because he knew how important this fight was. And then he just kind of opened up

after his fight, after his big win, inside the UFC Apex. So clearly, the second best the second biggest star and then you know Andre Feeley anytime you bring uh that baggage into the cage and you win you pull it out and I in terms of like who needed the this win more than anyone it's probably Andre Fuling on this card because he had him won since i want to say 2020 against charles jordane and then he lost to bryce mitchell uh he lost to joanneerson brittow and then he had that weird ending against daniel panetta if we're talking about who is in

most need of a win this past Saturday it was Andre Feeley so So there you go. Those are my three big winners, Greg Rodriguez, Damon Jackson, Andre Filly. And I think that's pretty obvious. I think most people would agree that those were the three big winners of Saturday night. I disagree. Of course. Of course, shout out to Damon Jackson for a number of reasons. And you can go back into the archives here on YouTube and watch Damon's appearance on BTL. He took on Sean Al-Shadi right before UFC 277. and he was trying to cut weight in case somebody fell out of one of the lightweight fights so he could fight.

So he did the whole show on the treadmill and he beat the brakes off Sean Alshaddy, which he would admit, I'm not talking trash. So Jed, you disagree. Why is that? Well, Jose is correct. Greg Rodriguez is number one. I don't know if you noticed. He almost lost his face, Mike.

His face almost fell off of his face. I've never seen that before in a face. fight. Like, that's just never, I've seen a lot of gnarly cuts, and we saw one in the main event, it was super gnarly. I've never seen, like, that's like the, the joke in football movies where the bridge of the linebacker's noses here, only instead of it being like a cut that they then tape over, it's like a hatchet was taken to his face. It is, it was one of the grossest, most gnarliest things I've ever seen in a cage fight. And I was stunned and mortified and, and, and felt that a medical duty was not being filled when the doctor let him go back out there.

And when he did, I was like, this is horrible. I don't know what's going on. I'm not a doctor, but this doesn't seem medically safe. And then he wins. Then he turns around and wins a fight with half a face. Like, I don't, it doesn't happen. That's clearly number one. He gets the bonus that he deserves.

And let's just add this in. he's the most exciting dude at middleweight. I'm not saying Robocop's the best middleweight in the world, but in his last four fights, he had what wasn't a bad fight with Arm and Bertrosian, and he's got three bonuses. Bonus in each of his other four fights, this dude just comes out to fight every time,

and he said in his post-fight interview, you know, I'm going to give you everything I have every time out. That's what fans can expect for me. And damn sure we can't. That is probably not good for long-term career prospects, but he's appointment. He is the, I call them on fight night, the Justin Gagee in middleweight and I stand by it. If that dude's fighting, saddle up.

I'm ready to go because that man has never turning in something boring. Number two, I also agree with Jose. It has to be Damon Jackson. I don't need to go into it beyond what Jose said, because I agree with everything. I cannot imagine losing a family member, a close family member like that and being a functioning human being, much less one who can fist fight somebody. and do it in the manner he did, that everything about that is wildly impressive. And to hear him talk about it on the MMA hour afterwards yesterday was very special.

So you should go listen if you have it. Third, though, this is what Jose gets wrong. Andre Fili also brought a lot of baggage in that post-fight moment was certainly very touching. He also was on the MMA hour yesterday. He got really deep with Ariel. It's a really good interview, and I would strongly encourage him to listen to that. but the reality is he's not the biggest star coming out of this thing he's he's maybe number four probably number four but number three

is the dude that the ufc was trying to get over and they did it it's joe piper fiver comes in uh we talk about quality of opposition is not very high but it doesn't really matter the whole point is to give you a highlight reel and give you the mic and do the things and while i may not like some of the things joe pifer said the fact is he is was one of the biggest things talking about you and about after that, how good he looked, this guy, his story as well, less of his story in the immediacy of that fight like it was with Jackson and Feely and more the totality of his existence in life.

But his story, everything that came from there, what he said, the way he took that moment and ran with it, he is clearly my number three star of the weekend. Good answers. Honorable mention, Dana White as well, for putting Greg Rodriguez out into the universe. One of the best things we've done in a long time. that has stuck so much. Many calls on heck of a morning. We're asking about Greg Rodriguez,

and it makes me laugh every single time. So excellent answers all around. There's fights this weekend. There's no UFC this weekend, but there are fights this weekend. And that's where we're going to talk about now. The point for round three goes to Jose Youngs. It's two to one, the first mention of Greg.

And that got it done. But good round, enjoyed it very much. Greg cop Yep Great cop Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes Ugh what

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Of course, they got a couple events coming up. They got this one tomorrow. They get the one in Long Beach, which is a, let's be honest, a much of, more interesting card than this one, but Bellator Dublin, Benson Henderson versus Peter Quilly, your boy, Yuel Romero is back fighting Melvin Manhoff.

Is this must-see viewing for you? No, God, no. This is, if you got nothing else to do tomorrow, and you is, I assume this is on Showtime, and you are one of the five people with the Showtime subscription. Yeah, sure. Do it. But no,

this is not it's weird because belator has been doing this thing where they don't put on cards a lot so their cards have actually mostly been really good because they are doing on a 12 shows a year or something so they're being able to stack their cards of talent it's been really fun this is not one of those times this is this is this is belator SBG ireland is what this fight card is like you just got a bunch of straight blast guys um and not they're like best guys if we're being real about it The main event's okay. Benson, still got some scrap to him,

Peter Quilly, that's probably at least some level of fun. Co-main event is probably, in some definitions, a war crime or a violation of the Geneva Convention. I have no idea why this has been put together and it's really, really bad. You would have thought,

honestly, had the Hamzot and 8-D-S fight gone on, that would have been pretty bad, one of the worst fights you've ever seen booked, this is it I mean this gives it a run for its money and like what the hell are we doing here and I'm not even saying that you all is going to kill him because there's a really high possibility that you all just doesn't do anything and Melvin Manhoof also doesn't do anything we have a 15 minute staring match between two dudes who are almost 50 it's just it's not what you want

either way this plays out either Mannhoeff is going to get murdered or this fight is going to be horrific so It's tough hang. And this is number one, you're all Romero fan. Like, it just is what it is. I can be honest about it. Some of the other fights are okay. Mads Bernal, Pedro Cavalio, it's okay.

But, like, not a ton to hang your hat on with this one. Jose, what say you? You're good at finding diamonds in the rough, so forth and so on. But what do you think of this card tomorrow? Bellator's back. I've had a little bit of some time away, if you will. What do you think? It's fine.

it's fine I mean there's like a lot of what Jed said there's some interesting fights at the top of the card I know Molly McCann's been kind of doing the media rounds over in Dublin for a teammate Liam McCourt so that's always fun Mads Brunel Pedro Carvalio fight is awesome hopefully

Mads Brunel learns how to throw a jab because he talks a lot about loving boxing I don't think I've ever seen the man throw a jab in my entire life so if he sorts that out that'll be a fun fight. Brett John's fighting on the undercard is a little weird. I thought that would be a little higher. And then Georgia Carrey Conyons on the undercard is great.

Carl Albertson is great. Carl Albertson, like, I'm pretty sure his only losses are to Phil Davis, your Phrasca, and I want it. It's either Vedeem or Valentin or both. So the man's only losing to just. It's Valentin. Yeah. And so the dude's only losing.

And I'm pretty sure he has a win over Nemcov, if I remember correctly then. Am I wrong in that? No, you're correct. It was a splitty directly before he lost to Valentin. It's the fighting before he lost to Valentine. So then I think, there you go. So then him being on the inner card is a little weird. So there's a lot of diamonds in the rough in terms of like I'm interested in one of the fighters.

The main event is cool. Benson Henderson is one of the best lightweights ever. I don't. I think he gets overlooked a lot in the grand scheme of like who are the best lightways, who are the best fighters who are some of the greatest UFC champions. in the last few years. I think Benson Henderson gets the shaft. I don't think he beat Frankie Edgar in the rematch.

Thank you. I think he lost to Gilbert. I think he lost to Gilbert Melendez, but he was still a good champion. He's still a good fighter. Me and Sean got to a fight about this yesterday because maybe it was two days ago, whenever we were doing damn,

we got on a tangent about Benson. And I was like, yeah, he didn't beat Frankie Edgar. I mean, he did, but he didn't. And Sean was like, what are you talking about? And we got into an argument. He clearly did not win. either of those fights. Thank you, Jose.

Wait a way to be on the right side of history. The first fight, I can, I could, I can understand why people think Benson won the first fight. So when that fight was over, I believe that was the Tokyo card, the main event. And Benson, when I'm like, I mean, I disagree, but I get it. The second fight, I don't get it. I just do not get it. I believe that was 150 in Denver, if I remember correctly.

That's what I said. I was like Sean acted like I was insane and disrespecting Benson Henderson. I was like I thought everyone agreed he didn't win those fights. Sean also said very confidently that the Boston Celtics would not make the NBA finals last year. And what happened? They made it. So when Sean starts to watch sports, we can talk about it. Peter Quilley, at least has a name.

He did win like the best entrance of the year last year. on the MMA hour. So at least that is some sort of interesting main event for the locals. Benson Henderson, like we talked, I talked a lot about Jose Alta just being down the clown against anyone. Benson Henderson is in that same category. I thought he was going to retire after his last fight in Phoenix.

I thought that was the perfect time. You know, his wife was going to go pro. He was in front of his home crowd. He just beat Habib's teammate. But he still wants to make a run at the title, and then he wants to go be a cop in Arizona. So good on him.

So there's interesting fights. There's interesting names in every, fight on the main card and there's interesting fighters on the undercard it's fine it's a car it's a bellator card in europe there that we've seen worst cards in europe i'll say that from bellator jed what what fight to you we talk about we give ratings for these cards we talk about fights that actually have stakes and things on the line here and obviously every fight jed has has stakes you obviously want to win you don't want to lose the stakes there's always stakes there's always stakes But what fight on this card has the biggest stakes?

Like, is it the main event? Or, I mean, even though this fight could be very bad for a number of ways, is it U.L. Romero and this fight with Melvin Manhoof because a win opens up a lot of interesting doors for this man. He might be getting up there in age, but he's got eyes on the 205 title. He's talking about going back down to 1.85. A loss would be very catastrophic for him.

So what fight on this card has the biggest stakes? Let me ask you a question before I answer this. Are we doing a low-key-banger portion for this card or no? I mean, I think they're all sort of loki-bangers in their own way, outside of the main and co-main. But go for it. I think I know where you're going with this. Do I shoehorn my low-key-banger into this section right now,

or do I answer this, then I get a position later to be like, here's my low-key-banger. Because, I mean, let's be real. You're right. It's probably the co-main event has the most stakes, because if you all wins, he might just get the next title shot, like after Corey and Nemcov settle up or whatever they might just do that or I know he has said that he wants to do middleweight things again so maybe they just say screw it and do that probably has the mistakes just because there really aren't that many others I'm trying to look here I mean I guess theoretically Diana Silva's Leah McCourt could also be in line to maybe make something happen but yeah I guess co-main event in that regard but Mike, the fight that's going to have the most stakes is also the Loki banger of the evening.

And I'd like to tell you, if you guys haven't listened to No Bet's Barb, I asked a question on there because it's a very important fight that's happening on the undercard. Some might say, well, this is a fight between a 1-0 fighter and a 3-and-1 fighter. Why is it important? I say, Darae Kelly, very good prospect. Pretty extensive amy career, undefeated. He's only 1-0, but he's one of those guys. He's an SBG guy. he's like the next crop coming out of there.

I think he's 24, just looked at it. So a lot of talent. They're envisioning big things from him. Can totally see it. Kai Stevens, also a young dude, got a little bit of talent.

He's three and one, but he also has a pretty extensive AMI record with some good, good performances there. This is a really good fight on the merits of prospect of MMA. But, and maybe this is a big gouthe,

and I'm okay with it. Dara Kelly. in Dublin, Ireland. He's an Irish guy. And he is going to be reping the colors, reping the tricolor. And Kai Stevens is an English man. And he, I don't know if you know this, English and the Irish, not the greatest of friends. And there have been a number of things that have happened on the internet in the wake of the passing of Queen Elizabeth from various peoples

who weren't the biggest fan of the monarchy. And there's absolutely a world where the Irish fans boo this man back to the stone age and it is just going to be an electric environment for a fight. So this is easily the fight I'm the most interested on this whole card if I'm being honest, just because the ancillary stuff that can go in here, what's what's going to happen, how it's all going to shake out, does Kai Stevens bring out the English flag? What's going to happen? It's going to be wild and I'm here for it. Jose. What say you? I mean, that's a good answer.

I'm still going to go with the Carl Albertson fight. I just looked it up because I wanted to make sure I was getting the year right for when he lost to Yuri Pahaska back in Risen. That was during the second round of that Grand Prix tournament. And that was like those round, like you look at that. You just hear, oh, it was a first round TKO lost to year Pahaska. That first round was 10 minutes. he lost at the 950 mark of round one against year Phraska and he has wins over both Nemcov brothers

and then like I said he's lost to Moldovsky and Phil Davis and I actually this did pop in my head when his last fight was in Phoenix so I was like he's been a long time since he's last five I think that was like October 2021 the last time we talked to him when I was backstage and I'm not going to try to pronounce the individual's name that he beat but I very much remember that Bellator PR came back to talk to it and said, do you guys want to talk to Carl because he's in the back coughing of blood and he can't stand up? And I was like, well, I feel like he shouldn't talk to us. You should

probably go to the hospital. And then they were like, probably. And then they left and then they came back and he goes, no, he wants to talk to you guys. I'm like, the man coughing of blood that can't stand wants to talk to us. Okay. And then he did wasn't that bad of an interview. And then he went right to the hospital. So Carl Albertson is just made a something else. If he's fighting near a Haska for 10 minutes and then choosing to talk to the media after he was coughing of blood and couldn't physically move. So I'm pretty confident that fight is the low-key bangor on the prelims. Listen, you both got me very interested.

Got me very interested to pick my spots here. Yeah, Carl on Carl loser changes their name to cram beginning with a kid. I love I love name name rights fights. Those are very good. All right. Well, regulation is done. Done. Point for round four goes to Jedbyshoe. That was a wonderful low-key banger. Both were very good. But I think you got a lot of people tune in to those prelims. I just want to say Carl Albertson also beat, I'm not going to try to pronounce his individual's name before he far.

He submitted someone at the eight-minute mark of round one in the rise in turn. I'll say, didn't, didn't rise and do 10-minute first rounds? Yeah, it's great. I wish that was still a thing. I wish that was a thing in America. Just do 10. FFL should do that. Screw five. Yeah. Have fun. All right.

So it's time for the knockout round. We're going to have some fun with this one. We haven't had a little game showy knockout round for a while. But Jed, you're coming off the win. So you get the prerogative here, but you have two options here. You could choose the order or you could choose the category. I would like clarification, please. Can you use it in a sentence?

What does that mean? You can either choose to go first or last, or you can pick from one of the three categories. I'll go second. I don't, it doesn't matter. I'll go second. That's fine. I'll let Jose venture into the great unknown,

like the brave, brave man that he is. All right. So Jose, you get to choose the category, and they are as follows. Category one, spreading the wings. Category two, becoming a butterfly. Category three. Spectacular.

Back. Category 3, back to the cocoon. Wow. So is the first spreading your wings like the band wings starring Paul McCartney? And then I'm assuming the last two are just Pokemon references. Or the television show wings, underrated comedic classic of the early 90s. I have no, I have no concept of what that television show is. So can you say him again?

Like that was very strange. I'm very confused. I'm very confused by. You said, you can pick the category and then you gave me a bunch of insectoid thing. Yeah, you have three. Category one is spreading the wings. Category two is becoming a butterfly and Category 3 is back to the cocoon. I love this so much.

This is exactly the reaction that I wanted. Spreading your wings becoming a butterfly or back. So it's like reverse osmosis type thing. I'll say back to the cocoon because that just is impossible. So let's do that. That is scientifically impossible. All right, so I'll eliminate the other two categories just to let you know what they were.

Spreading the wings was Eddie Alvarez becoming a free agent. So he's spreading his wings. Why not? Becoming a butterfly was going to be the reaction to the young buck, Raoul Roses Jr., getting a UFC contract on the contender series. But we're going back to the cocoon. I didn't really know how to name this one,

but I figured that it all kind of lined up. So this is a fun one. This is probably the most fun choice because we do love fun here. We have a man who has a big fight coming up, supposed to make a lot of money. He was mentioned on this program a couple of different times in the Jose Albo conversation.

His name is Anderson Silva. And Anderson Silva revealed earlier this week on the M.A. hour that he might just have one more fight left in him and that he might want to go to Japan to have this final fight. So Jose, you are the matchmaker for Anderson Silva's final fight in Japan. Who does he fight in his final fight? final mixed martial arts competition. If you had the magic pencil, one minute on the clock, your time starts now.

Well, if I'm Bellator and Rise, and I immediately shake hands and you come to come, you come to some sort of agreement to have, you take Michael Van Gogh, page, who can go up to 185, and you take the corpse of Yusufi and you make them fight, and the winner will get to fight Anderson, Sylvie, because let's not forget, Yusufiomai, have to be able to O'Kami has a win over Anderson. Anderson evends that in Rio. It's one-on-one. It's the trilogy fight that nobody wants,

which is why he's going to fight Michael Venom Page at 185. Michael Venom-Page is going to come out with his Akotsky robe and his ninja star, Ninja Throne Star and all this stuff, is going to wipe the floor with Yushin Okami. And then we're going to get Michael Venom-Page versus Anderson-Silva in a ring, not in a cage, in a ring, with a 10-minute first round on a rising New Year's Eve card,

I'm going to go to Tokyo for the first time ever just to watch this fight and then that means Anderson Silva will have fought Israel Adasanya and Michael Venet Page and then he can ride off into the sunset fighting both of the guys that have essentially modeled their entire careers off of him.

All right. Jed, we go to you. You chose to go second. You have a look on your face. I can't really tell if it's a look of confidence, a look of defeat. I'm not really sure. But same question for you.

We'll find out. you're booking Ashton Silva's final MMA fight. I get the same question. Hell yeah. Yeah, you get the same question. I thought I had to make a whole new question. Hell yeah. Nope.

Nope. Jose got that power. One minute on the clock. Anderson Silva versus Blank, final MMA fight in Japan. Who's it going to be? Go. Is damn sure not going to be MVP? That man doesn't deserve it.

That's a man who just lost to Mike Perry and bare knuckle boxing. Like, come on. Let's not. pretend that anyone likes him or that he deserves good things because he doesn't. No, it's the same fight, Mike, that I've been calling for for, I think, three years now. I don't even remember whenever Anderson retired, I had been calling for it for like a year and a half before then when he finally left the UFC. You're going to have to wait because I think this man is still under contract and know he's about to fight. He is about to fight a man by the name of Santiago Ponsonibio.

And the man I'm referring to is one, brutal Bobby Lawler. It is the fight I've wanted to see forever. It is two legends. Robbie Lawler had an extensive middleweight run in his career, though most of it was at welterweight. And that's the right fight. It is the fight to see. We saw Anderson fight Nick Diaz and that was dope. Okay, it was a little

weird, but it's still fine. You do this fight, it's going to be chucking hands. It's going to be awesome. Weird stuff's going to go on and to do it in Japan would be even cooler. All right. All right. I just want to say Jed used 40

of his 60 seconds to hide. up his answer before saying his answer. I was like, let's, let's get to it. It's a game of showmanship at the end of the day, because it's all about what the peeps. Jed's trying to get a read on the peeps who are going to decide this one, so you can go to the poll right here on this page and you can vote. Was it Jed?

Was it Jose who gets it done? No, no, no. No. Is it Robbie Lawler or is it Michael Venham page? That's the real poll question. I thought you were good. I'm surprised. other of us said Gaygard-Nusasi for his last fight because that fight hasn't happened,

which is bizarre to me. I kind of think Gaygard has too much juice for me to want to watch that. Sure. I mean, I'd watch it. Don't get me wrong. And that maybe actually would make more sense from a who's available standpoint. F it. Bob Sapp.

Let's make it happen. That's a great answer. I take that answer. Did you see that photo of Bob Sapp floating around the internet the last few days? No. No. The man has like no body fat and it's scary. The dude looks like he's backed on the stuff.

I hope he is. Be on the stuff, Bob. Be on the stuff, Bob. Be on the stuff, Bob. Perfect lesson. Big announcement coming up after we announced the winner here. But Casey, do we have enough votes? So do I need to stall for time here?

I let them go back and forth a little bit. So what are we thinking? Ooh. Let's give us another 30 seconds. It's close? Close. It goes. Do we have a draw option?

No draw option. Is there a draw option today? Ooh, it's a special one. We are picking a winner today. Casey, I'm going to send you this photo of Bob Sapp to put on the screen while the votes continue to come in. Is it the one of Desa Porier? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I thought it was fake. I thought it looks fake, too, but I'm going to. I choose it now. I choose to live in a world where it's real. Also, Mike, did you, do you know what the show Wings was? was. Oh,

yeah. You see too young. Okay, that's fine. Oh, yeah. I choose to believe this photo that I sent Casey is true.

Well, we get the last votes in. The votes are getting very close, so we're going to, I don't know which way this Bob Sap photo will take the votes, but hold on it. In a good direction.

Whichever direction is, it'll be right. The direction is good. Bob Sat looks like he's getting ready for fight circus. Oh. I mean, them teasing.

him but then him not being involved like really kind of broke my heart i still love fight circuits forever but there we go holy dude wow i don't i don't think that uh it's a question of whether he's on the gas or not who good for you bobby it looks like it looks like a statue also is this just the angle or is bob skip leg day because I'm going to say the same thing. He's allergic to squats, dog. Get it right. And calf raises, it would appear, but I mean,

good for you, Bob. I can confidently say I'll never look like that. He's getting his legs just dense. So when you kick his, you think you can come in with a leg kick and then you just shatter your leg into a thousand pieces. That's the game. See, people think that Bob Sapp's not a smart,

intelligent fighter. I'm oh no he's the smartest he is the smartest prize fighter of all time I would argue that with anyone dude he made so much Mike Mike I'm gonna I'm gonna you have to tell me exactly when to stop the poll because it is this close I'm gonna depend on you you tell me all right well I'll plug away a couple things and then we'll turn it over to you so you can check out no bets barred with Jed Mishu and Gc because there's not a lot of talk about they

There's a couple bets on the Bellator card, but they put together a nice little, for the newcomers, for the rookie gamblers trying to have some fun watching their MMA, maybe making a few bucks, not going crazy. They have a nice little fun little guideline for you.

With 15 rules, I believe it was, something like that, just to get you on your journey. There's only one rule, and that's follow your heart. Rule number two is have fun. And that's really all that matters. Have fun.

Rule number two is you'll always have fun if you follow your heart. Now we have a whole new rule book with Jose Young's. Maybe there'll be some new rules for life on Jose's new show, Anything But Fighting. Check that out. Great episode with Joseph Benavides. Joseph Benavita is a big movie buff and apparently likes pineapple on his pizza, but only in a certain way.

He's correct about that, by the way. I want to be extremely clear. He had some weird takes that I did not ascribe to you, but the pizza one is very. very accurate. Pineapples fine. Ham's too sweet to offset it correctly. I don't have the diet of a four-year-old, so I don't eat that. I mean, I'm never going to yuck anybody's yum. Eat what makes you happy, people, as long as it's relatively healthy. Yeah, sure. Just don't eat, you know, human flesh or pineapple. All right. I am stopping this poll 10 seconds, people, because

one of those sleeves is not like the other. Check out. And of course, damn, there were goods coming out on Jose Aldo, who just recently retired. So maybe if you got a long, long, long, long, long, long, long road trip ahead of you, be perfect. How long is it? How long is it? Two hours? Over two?

Oh, no, it's like two and a half, I think. We tried to keep it short to. So it's a solid, it's the Christopher Nolan podcast of MMA. Yeah, it's not a one listen. You got to break it up into, you know. Well, that's, it's fine. It's like Tenant. You got to listen to it.

times where it's it even begin to make sense? No, I think it mostly makes sense. There's just a lot of it. All right. Who's the panel on it? Who's the panel on it? It was a five-person panel, which is where it's not. This show is becoming, yeah, now this is now a two-hour.

It's a plug fest. It's a plug fest. All right, all right. Oh, my God. Okay. This is our closest vote ever today. I hope it's a draw. Oh, that'd be the best.

Oh, boy. Your winner today is with 51% of the votes and still Jedmishu. Oh, he gets it done. What a battle. It was, dude, Jose was winning up to like 30 seconds ago. It might have been the pineapple pizza that switched to vote. I don't know. I mean.

If that's why I lost, then I'm fine with it. If I'm fine with a bunch of degenerative visigal, it's just voting against me. I was about to say Anu. I haven't said Anu in a while, but. I'm not actually the champion, though. Oh, well. Yes. Hold on.

Hang on. Hang on. I'm also, I just pulled up the comments, and I'm seeing a lot of words like rigged. I'm seeing boo with several O's. I'm saying someone even spelled my name correctly. Someone says vote, Jose. So it is what it is. Harry Truman, quote, unquote, lost at one point.

And apparently I lost today. All right. We're just doing all the historical references today. Harry Truman. We need to close the show, but first we need to get rid of this music. We need to get the breaking news music. We have a big announcement here, a big announcement. Breaking news.

pertaining to the future of this program. And here is the news. I, Michael Heck Jr., here in the Year of Our Lord, 2022, September 22nd, hereby officially resign as the BTL champion. I am vacating the title. I'm stripping myself of the belt. I feel like, I mean, I've accomplished everything I can possibly accomplish on this program. I beat Drake Riggs in a game that he just can't be beaten in because of all the fans that

he brings to the table. So it was the biggest win. I don't think it could get any better. So I am no longer the champion. I like to thank all of those who have supported me along the way, of course. Papa Heck, Mama Heck, thank you for making me a champion. Bring me on this earth to be a champion. But we have had an emergency meeting of the BTL Championship Committee.

They have been prepared for this moment, and I've been working on something for the last week or so. So for longtime viewers of this program, and you can bring my man the winner of this game on the screen, This will not be a WWF Eric Bischoff, Triple H moment where I hand you the title. You're going to have to earn it, and you're going to have to earn it the right way. Next week, on this very program, 1 p.m. Eastern, the championship match, nine months in the making. Now, last year, we had ourselves a nice little tournament.

We had ourselves a little tournament. Eight people, single elimination, and then when we got to the finals, Jed dressed up to the nines for the matchup that was supposed to happen, and then it didn't happen. And Jed won the title, and he's never felt like he's been championed since. But we got her. Next week, it's going down. The finals, we never got Jed Michoud versus the undefeated Phoenix Carnivali

on this program next week. It is going down for the undisputed BTL championship. I confirmed with her again today because I told her I was going to announce this. She's in, Jed. How do you feel about this? You finally get the matchup you desire. This is all I wanted. I just wanted my chance, my opportunity to step inside the BTL cage, prove that I'm the best.

I bootstomped everybody else in my way to win that tournament. And she ducked. She didn't show. She didn't make the walk like she was supposed to. Now she's fine. I mean, look, that's smart because I was ready. I was focused. I was dialed out of beating anybody you put in front of me.

So it's smart to duck me like that. Now, nine months later, she sees me going a 50-50 split here with Jose. It's like, kids lost his edge. Now I'll take him. It's smart. It's the Floyd Mayweather move. But uh-uh. I'm doing it.

Let's go, maybe. This is all I ever wanted. Woo! So get excited, everybody. Get your Sunday best. Get ready to go. Jedmishu, Phoenix Carnival. for the vacant, undisputed

BTL title. Jose, who's your pick? Between Jed and Phoenix? Yep. I mean, Jed's probably going to be a bigger underdog than Nate Diaz against Hamzot, so I'll probably throw like a dollar on him

to bet a dollar win a million. But I would assume the betting favor would be Phoenix. That's fine. But don't believe in me. Nobody believes. in me and that mantra has led countless sports teams

to Disney movies. So you look 1980 Miracle on Ice Baby. It's the miracle in the BTL cage and I'm going to provide it for you next weekend. Are you comparing Phoenix Carnival to the Soviet Union's hockey team in 1980?

The level of dominance? Yes. Oh, okay. Not the persons. I'm sure some of those men were fine people or whatever. but the level of dominance, identical. Sure. Well, get excited. You can hit the exit music, Casey.

Big announcer is done. The show is done. I think post knockout round question, we've gone like an extra 13 minutes, but well worth it. Big one next week. Jed versus Phoenix for the undisputed BTL title. We are done.

We will see you next week for Jed, for Jose, for Casey on the ones and twos. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn may or may not take you home. We hope she does. But I am Mike Heck. We'll see you back here for the biggest BTL matchup ever next week. Good night, everybody.

Love you guys. This has been Between the Links. I am Esther Lynn. Join us next week. Champion versus Champion. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap.

You're almost at the finish line. But first... There. The last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for. for a pause that refreshes.