MMA Fighting - BTL | Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland, UFC 328, Carlos Prates Destroys JDM

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

The final countdown to UFC 328 is officially on, and this Saturday, the highly anticipated grudge match between Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland for the middleweight title goes down in Newark, N.J. Despite all of the threats of pre-fight insanity, thus far, the paths of Chimaev and Strickland haven't crossed. Will they be able to keep the fighting in the cage, and if so, will it be competitive? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel previews the Chimaev vs. Strickland matchup, what's at stake besides the title, what happens if Strickland pulls off the upset, and if Chimaev leaves the division with a win. Additionally, topics may include other UFC 328 storylines, the Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira championship co-main event, the UFC White House faceoffs, the new UFC White House belts, Carlos Prates' massive UFC Perth win, other bits of news and notes, and more. Plus, RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein joins the show to talk their big announcement today, and discuss promotional news and notes Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Live from MMA 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. Happy Thursday to us all. We are in the midst of a pretty crazy stretch in the combat sports world. We're coming off UFC Perth. We got UFC 328.

coming up on Saturday. We're on the eve of the eve of UFC 328 and the main event for the middleweight title between Humzat Shemayef and Sean Strickland and the Under the Radar co-main event for the flyway title between Joshua Van and Tetsuru Taira. Really good card, very excited for.

We had a media day yesterday. We got the press conference coming up later on today. Preview show tomorrow. It's going to be a very busy weekend here at M.AFighting.com and it's great to have you here. And joining me to answer your questions, and he's unveiling something that doesn't normally happen all that often these days when it comes to the ultimate fighting championship.

He is Mr. No Gray area, the hot take kid himself, the one and only. Jed Beshew, and look at that whiteboard, Jed. How are you? Three stars, baby. This is a three Mushul and star card this weekend. I was debating whether to hold it for tomorrow on our preview show, but I didn't know what else to put on the whiteboard. I didn't know if the whiteboard needed to be the avenue for my devilware's

Prada two takes. And so we just threw up the star rating a wee bit early, but it's a great card this week. Mike, Perth was Perth. Main event was awesome. But, I mean, top to bottom, there is like two fights on this entire card that if you took them away, I would just be like, that's fine. You know, and that doesn't happen a lot. So very excited for this weekend.

We've gotten through the worst of it, Mike. The worst was always. going to be Media Day. I guess maybe the presser will be bad too, but we're almost through the bad parts, and then we just are left with nothing but the fights. I'm very excited for. Yeah, media was rough, dude.

Golly. Tough scenes. Tough scenes. We really got to go back to the ultimate media days. We have to go back. It's got to happen soon. We really need it. Like, we don't need five hours of that.

We just don't. Like, it was so. much better pre-COVID when you just had the fighter sitting there everyone got their own individual stuff as opposed to each fighter going up there and just answering questions like we had a strickland and shemaiah scrum on tuesday like we literally talked to both of those guys on tuesday and then they come back up on wednesday even shon strickland just gets up there and is like all right what do you get to ask me that you haven't asked me yet and i mean i mean I mean, luckily, Hamzot dropped the sparring footage. We got a take or two from that. But, yeah, man. And then it capped off of Jim Miller. And I love me some Jim Miller.

Don't get me wrong. Jim Miller's the man. 27 minutes with Jim Miller is out of control. I'll allow it. It's Jim Miller. Jeremy Stevens took a much bigger issue with Jeremy Stevens taking an infinite amount of time. Only he was immediately vindicated because there was just a 40-minute gap after him. So I was like, I guess he could.

could have stayed and talked forever because nobody else is coming but it's just like Jeremy Stevens I mean solid career you know but like we don't need to be doing 20 minutes with you like you don't really need you don't need to be here you're you're it's strange that you're fighting here so media days have just sort of gotten progressively like dragged out and you know like you do want to give everybody an opportunity to try and show their personality get you know, get out there, but a god love the co-main event. I said this on No Betts Bard this week.

I think it's the best fight on the books now that Prattis and J.D.M. is gone. And I said before Perth, arguably the only other fight that I think is comparable to Prattis J.DM as far as just pure awesome is the co-main event this weekend. I love me, Tetsu-Air-R-Taira. I've been a big supporter of Tetsu-A-Rah.

I have an incredible amount of respect for Josh Van, though he's trying his damnedest to turf his goodwill post title win. Those men are voids of charisma, and it's just tough to, like, give them an unabated 15 minutes where they won't do anything that that gets you hype for a fight that's awesome. Like, they should just sit there and be like, hell yeah, it's going to rock. That would be better than whatever it was they were doing. Media days are tough. The pressers are always a better, they can be worse.

I expect the presser to be, is the presser going to be anybody but the main and co-main? Do we know? It's just the four of them. Just the four. And realistically, there are going to be some questions lobbed at Van and Tyra, but that presser is just going to be

Chimaev and Sean Strickland, you know, doing their thing. But that's better. Like, it's better to give people something to play off of, as opposed to taking a million hours to not get too much conveyed. But, you know,

it's just part of what it's, It is. It would be better if it didn't take six hours. Yeah. But we're past it. And we're almost home and the fights are going to be sick on Saturday. And then Joaquin Buckley went up there and just didn't want to be there at all. By the way, I do have an interview coming with Joaquin Buckley, much more enjoyable than what you saw on Media Day yesterday. I broke the shell a little bit. We had some good laughs. It was a good time. I think I'm not sure when that's dropping, maybe tomorrow, but good stuff

there from, from Buckley. We talked about movies that are just super under the radar. Like this is cinema type movies. Love it. Including the movie Undisputed, which is just an underrated classic. So we'll, that'll be coming soon. I was legitimately thinking about Buckley yesterday. We're like, he has made such an effort over the past couple of years to be a big personality to, you know, he tried beefing with Connor McGregor and Cub Swanson.

And he has done so much to try and get his name out there. And to some extent it was working, right? like he was it was getting traction or at least getting attention and then he lost to usman and it feels like he just hasn't done anything since then and like on a fight weekend like this where the the two guys at the top are just going to absorb all the light they are they are black holes just drawing everything towards them it really feels like this is the quietest buckley fight week in like four or five years yeah well let's get to the questions uh we will be joined at 1 p.m. Eastern by

Chad Bronstein, the co-founder of Real American Freestyle. They dropped some big news today. If you guys haven't seen it, we will wait until Chad comes on. Some pretty cool stuff to grow the wrestling community. Plus, we'll talk about Armand Serrukin being booked in two matches and two weeks' time, including Tony Ferguson. And, you know, maybe we'll see if he'll drop a nougar too. So Chad Bronston's coming on.

And the biggest news of the week, I don't know if any of you all noticed it, John Martin PFL started following me. We are one step closer to fights, baby. One step closer. Any DMs about a minister of fun, isish? I have not checked, but look, the minister of fun, I am, again, that salary is negotiable. I am open to just, you know, debating terms. But he's following fights.

Fights are soon to come, baby. Love this for us. Yes. I was going to say we could fix R.F. But they're doing great. Yeah, we don't really need to fix them. However, I did take them over in our promotional draft and thumped y'all with them. So I think it was my first promotional draft win.

Well done. You just can't have the UFC. You had Chad Brachad Hansen doing the heavy lifting for me. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. All right. Let's go. Art Van der Leigh. There's George Costanza.

Is the M.MA community suffering from memory loss? I keep seeing, is this the worst trash talk there has been recently? No, no, it is not. So, yeah. I mean, it's mostly coming from Sean. This is who he is. He did this with, he does this with pretty much everybody he fights. I would say the second Drickus fight was a little more subdued.

Drickis was dropping bars on him the first time. The Hernandez one was, I mean, he was saying some Strickland has stuff. But then at the end, it was like, after Strickland finished him, was like, this is the best guy. He's a great dad. It's all this stuff. So I'm curious to see, like, if we get there after this fight, honestly on Saturday, but how would you compare, I guess, the Strickland Trash Talk, the Shemai of Trash Talk, any bit of Trash Talk this week to recent memory.

And is it a fair question to ask, you know, are we, is this the worst we've seen in quite some time? So we've wrote about this for a roundtable on Monday. I don't remember if you were on that or not, Mike. Sorry. That was not. you're not as me, I'm a.k. And I said no,

but I do think there's an argument for it. Because the, the tenor of the trash talk is just very different, right? Like, I think more bad things have been said in other iterations of trash talk, right? Like, you know,

not to clutch my pearls, but Connor McGregor and Habib Nomragamatov Connor said some just like virulently bigoted things at various times. Like that is a thing that happens. And Sean has honestly said a lot of, he said a lot of that at Media Day too. But like the, at no point in any of these other ones, really, there have been the threats of, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll see you outside, Mr. or whatever. But there hasn't been like, I have a gun and we'll shoot him, which is a thing that

Sean Strickland paraphrase said. And so like that's that's ratcheted up to a different level of like not just threatening bodily harm but threatening murder. And I guess

legally it may be self-defense based on how Strickland's couching it right. So that's definitely I think a little we've turned the dial up on that. But what I argued when I wrote about it is there's also Sean Strickland

Brooklyn, who says a lot of shit and doesn't do a goddamn thing. So, no, it's not. Because Connor McGregor threw a dolly at a bus and, like, got glass in other people's eyes. And they're leading to Habib jumping a cage and starting a brawl with a whole bunch of people. Like, those two have the worst. And I think we'll probably have the worst forever because a lot of really heinous shit was said. And a lot of very serious actions were taken as a result of that. Sean Strickland will say some abhorrent stuff.

It's just the brand. And he's not going to do anything about it. Like he, I promise you at the presser, I promise you, he will grab the mic and stand up and shout to the death. And he is going to jab and teep for 25 minutes or less, depending on if Hamzah can tackle him and finish him. You know, and for as much as Sean says he would do this stuff, I am deeply unneged. convinced that he would do anything other than flee if confronted with like Hamzot and three dudes in public and that's not a criticism that's what you should do right like if the four dudes are trying to jump you run away it's a great move um so you know

for me that's just like mostly jean strickland is is all bark and very minimal bite and so this doesn't hold up to the same as some of these other pretty terrible things that have been said in the history of this wonderful sport i am I don't know. Again, this is just all cherry for whatever. Some people really like this stuff. I just want to see these two guys fight. Like, it is an interesting matchup. And I thought Oscar Willis asked Strickland a pretty interesting question. And Strickland kind of like no sold it, but sort of just gave a little bit of extra advice. Oscar asked Strickland, do you feel like if you don't beat Hamzat, if you lose on Saturday, that there isn't anybody in the division who can beat him? And that kind of. kind of like through Strickland off a little bit. It was just like everybody in this division needs to learn out of wrestle. They just need to learn how to wrestle and learn how to have guys just kind of hanging on

their legs and all that stuff and didn't really answer it. But I thought that was a fascinating question. And it was like something that I thought about as well because I do think stylistically Sean is being undervalued in this fight. But if you look amongst the MMA community, especially on social media, a lot of people are given Sean a chance here. Like there are a lot of pundits out there. There are a lot of either ex fighters or current fighters who are picking

Sean to win, not just because Go America, although I've seen some of that too, but there are people who legitimately feel like Sean has a really good chance to win this fight. So I am fascinated by it. I don't need the press conference today. It's going to happen. It's going to get clicks. It'll be a bunch of

clips of them saying a bunch of stuff. I'm sure the TKO-ish part of this, they're thinking, make sure we get 500 cops up there to make sure they don't get near each other. Let's build this up. Think of what that clip's going look like to try to sell this thing.

So let's just get to Saturday, man. That's where I'm at at this point. Let's just get to Saturday and see what happens in that door locks. That's the thing that we're going to get to Saturday. Sean even said it in his media day yesterday. He was like, we're not going to fight on, like if we were here in the room, be fine.

We're not going to fight. We're going to fight on Saturday. Like, for all of his bluster, Sean Strickman understands the rules of social behavior. He may, he chooses not to engage with them at specific points in time, right? But it is the thing I wish to convey about

Sean Strickland more than anything. He knows what he is doing. He knows that it is right or wrong and he is making a decision to do it regardless. And if you don't want to just take my word for it, listen to his own words. At the media day yesterday, you know, he said, yeah, like we're going to fight on Saturday.

We're not going to, nothing's going to have and if we were here next each other, we're going to fight on Saturday. Because he understands like, okay, yeah, that's not, this is a game, the trash talking is a game, the fight is separate.

We'll do that. He took the monster energy hat he was wearing off and pointedly said into the microphones, I don't want my sponsor to, like, you know, my sponsor doesn't really like it when I say stuff that is,

he called it based, but means like, you know, bigoted or whatever. Like, he knows the rule. and sometimes he chooses to not engage with them for, you know, not ulterior but sort of larger purposes of building, I'm an edge lord brand or whatever. But like that Sean Strickland is very much a dude who if this was the NFL, right?

And they were like, hey, you just can't say that shit. He would just not say that shit. And he might like try and wink at it, but he would never say it because he knows how to do this thing. You know, like the point I've always gone back to. is when he got in that brawl, cage side with DDP ahead of their first or second fight, I don't frankly remember which one it was.

Go back and watch the incident. There is, is it Gilbert Burns' family is between them. And they're talking, and he literally just stands there and gets them to move. And he doesn't jump over a family of innocent bystanders to assault a guy. He lets them leave.

It does it. Like, he knows what he is doing. And so, like, he's not going to punch Hamzot. Hamzaat's a little bit more of a wild card But he's even like It's just it feels really unlikely that anything Sean says It's going to get him to really Like assault him assault him in an Armand-Saurukian way

As much like they're just going to build this up None of this is for me If it's for you, enjoy This is one of your, you know Sean Strick and Fight Week is super fun If this is a sort of thing you get into Not for me. I just want to see him fight.

Pretty excited about it. Yeah. I mean I think they're trying to this is a mental games from Sean they're trying to lure Hamzad into into a bra on Saturday they're trying to get him off his game and try to get him in to stay on the feed and just start winging him try to turn this into the Gilbert Burns fight that's kind of what I feel but we'll see what happens man like I said this is a very fascinating fight uh shout out to vertigo dingo dog welcome yeah Michael beale welcome and then vertigo dog comes in there and then give some memberships what a absolute hero we love you verity dingo dog

enjoy the memberships everybody uh too much going on the next few weeks as mike sort of alluded to we got this we've got ronda rousey next weekend and then before you know white house is upon us but at some point over the summer want to get something else special for the youtube members going we've got emotes we've got badges want to give you something else for yeah for joining the Yes, absolutely. Chase, thank you. By the way, Super Chats gets at the front of the line. How in the hell did Ali pass a security clearance to get into the White House?

Also, good Lord, was Justin glazing the orange man in an insane way. So, buddy, did you watch that? Did you watch that whole thing? I had to. No, I didn't watch the whole thing. It was incredibly the most fun I've had this week was watching the four fighters in the Oval Office of Donald Trump. I saw the clips of Ilya, like just kind of like nonchalantly talking trash. I love that.

It was interesting. And I don't, at this point, I just straight up do not like Iliate Taborio. I thought he was doing great stuff there. It was perfect, perfect effort from him. What else? What do we miss? For those who miss the entire thing. Oh my God, man.

It was, it was so funny. It was just so, it's like 15 minutes or something. And I don't, I guess ostensibly it was just like a, press event for the fighters or whatever, but like they've got the White House press core in there. And they've got the specialty belt, which is hilarious for the event. It's the same UFC championship title. There are images up on if I didn't go find it. But it just like has an American flag on it and 250 and stuff, which is a deeply funny thing because the four fighters there, only one of them's American. He's probably going to get

thumped. So like you're going to have a Spanish Georgian dude holding a UFC belt with the American flag on it and then either a Brazilian who doesn't speak English or a Frenchman holding the American flag belt at the end of night. So she's like

that's hilarious. Justin Gagethe was being and not unexpected right. Like this is they're doing a media event and he supports Donald Trump. He's been pretty open about

doing that in general, and especially in this circumstance. He told some lies about how Donald Trump saved MMA, which is factually inaccurate. But like, that's whatever. You know, he was doing that. That's fine. The absolute funniest thing that happened in the one, Donald Trump, credit to him, he actually got the names right, which didn't think he would maybe nail. He shook Alex Pere's hand and was like, that's a big hand.

that guy can hit hard. Like he just said that, which was incredibly funny. I maintain and have always maintained that Donald Trump is one of the funnier Americans alive. And it was incredible. But the stone cold best part of it is he's sitting up there talking about the White House plans, you know, all these things. These are real warriors, all of that. And like this segment has wrapped. At one point they do pan to Ali.

And I was like, that's wild or whatever. But the segment's like functionally wrapped. And he goes to the press pool for questions. And like, these are professionals. He's a professional journalist who don't really give a shit about this. The fight's happening thing. Because there are other problems going on in this country for the president of the United States to maybe focus his attention on. And he just kind of keeps looking at Justin Gachie, who he clearly has like the most rapport with.

And it's like, they're just, they're going to want to ask questions about Iran. like, oh, shucks, I, the president, may have to answer questions about Iran. And at one point, he, he says whatever, he says, I'm not here to debate the factual accuracies of it. But the concluding line is functioning like, I think we're in a really good spot with them. Like, like, I think we're, we've got them over a barrel or whatever. And he literally turns to Justin Gachio for his left shoulders.

Like, wouldn't you, wouldn't you agree? as if Justin Gagee is some like knowledgeable entity on foreign policy or in the like the sec brief brief briefings wouldn't you agree Justin and he's like oh yeah we got him right where we want them the funniest fucking thing that happened like the whole thing felt like because like I I started watching this board in like 2003 I think there's a year maybe 2002 or 2004. And it is so surreal to be like, I watched the sport when,

literally at a time when John McCain called it human cockfighting. And now there are four fighters standing behind the president of the United States. Who is Donald Trump? And he's, and one of them is giving his thoughts on foreign policy to the White House press corps during, I assume, media event to discuss the fights that will be happening on the White House lawn

feels like the most like surreal satire thing it was just incredible I had a wonderful time watching that boy I bet if they keep doing this during media days you'll jump all over the white house coverage it seems like a lot more fun it was it was so wouldn't you agree Justin is the like one of the funniest things been said this month Like, Justin Gaiji, please tell me you agree with my assessment on how the war in Iran is going. You bet you. I mean, it was like, what else was he going to say? Like, actually, I think I kind of think, no, it was sick.

And he just did it in like, Cyril Gahn is just standing there this whole time. Like, what am I doing? Like, why am I involved in it? It's so, so great, man. So great. Oh my gosh. Hossada. I think Habib and Hamzad have different perspectives.

Strickland essentially said Muslims don't belong in America. Habib would see it as dishonor. Hamzat sees it as business. So that is one thing that Hamzaa did say in that scrum on Tuesday was that he's like, I love Sean Strickland. I love him. This guy's making me more money than I've ever made my career. So he does sort of look at it like that. And he's kind of had a smile on his face through most of it.

but I don't know. Certainly I would say there's some truth to Hamzat's looking at it as, okay, maybe I'm annoyed, but that's just more money in my pocket. Yeah, I just straight up agree with this assessment. Because I was the thing about Habib and I, Habib is not a saint by any stretch of the imagination. Not a pauper either. You know, he didn't fight for love of the game.

He fought for money. but like all of his actions and statements felt firmly undergirded by a strong sense of morality and obligation. And, you know, maybe he's just more of that because Abdulmanop was such a vocal presence and like very clearly his guiding light. And Abdulmanop was very obviously a man of principle. but like, you know, the day Habib retires, like, he's retired because, like, this wasn't about money or he retired because his father passed and he made a promise to his mother as a guy who's going to do the things he says, right? And Hamzad has just never carried himself that same way, you know, like when Hamzat broke in

to the UFC, he fought a bunch of times and said he was. who's going to kill everybody. Habib didn't really talk shit until the very end when it became apparent that if he was not, they were just never going to let him fight for a title. Really, like, he didn't talk shit until he's like, he started talking shit specifically about Connor McGregor and, like, beating the piss out of Michael Johnson

and be like, dude, just give up, you know? So, like, yeah, I, Hamzaa Shemayev is a businessman, and Habib, also a businessman, but definitely has a more strong sense of principles that would affect his his actions a lot more than I think. Hamza, like, I do not believe Hamzaa Chamaev

will ever react to words said to him in like a way like this. Now, if you touch him, like when he and Machado-Garry kind of like pat him on the back, that might trigger him a little bit. So if like Sean Strickland does get a push-off on him or something, maybe that'll go.

But if Sean Strickland just is like, and his word's not mine, you know, Muslims are terrible people or whatever the fuck he was saying yesterday I don't think that's going to get Hams out to do anything No Will there be any physical contact between the two Either during the face off today or tomorrow

Yeah probably but I do agree with you I think they're going to have a million security cards up there for the show of it And so Probably be pretty limited I'll say tomorrow somebody gets a shove off Yeah or like a T-Sucity Keep. Today I'll say nothing.

Nothing happens tomorrow if somebody gets a shove off. Yeah. Lazy bed. Gentlemen, we are not a real fight promotion, are we? Larissa Pacheco shared an email from Mick Maynard where he said, Not interested, but thank you. Has the UFC all but abandoned WMMA? So I'm curious, like, when that interview dropped.

Did it happen after the karate combat fight? Because that couldn't have helped her chances very much. is a disaster. And I know that's not like her fault, you know, for taking a check and fighting. But her, I mean, just the whole, the whole karate combat thing was a disaster. Somehow they remained in the news after all the BS that happened over the weekend. I hated all of it. There was not very much I liked about. But Larissa Pacheco fighting who she fought made absolutely no sense. That was the disgrace. So I wonder if that happened after. And but still, like, she should have been, the day that PFL released her, and that news came out, like, the UFC should have been on the phone with her already. Like, what are we doing here? Is this me? My biggest takeaway from this is like, the UFC has talked to Kayla Harrison and Kayla's going to fight Amanda Nunes and then she's done. That's how I feel. Unless she goes out and, like, loses a controversial split decision or something and they run it back and it's a big fight. But I think after Amanda, she's done because there's nobody else for her to fight.

Pacheco would be interesting because Pacheco has a win over her. So that's like something you could build upon. That's some kind of a story. But to me, this screams, okay, we have Kayla for one more fight. Maybe two. She ain't fighting anybody else, but Amanda Nunez. It does. But that still raises.

I actually agree with you. Sort of my first sentiment as well, my first sentiment was, what the fuck are we doing? Grow up. Come on. Like, McNairdard stopped ruining this goddamn promotion. But then my second one was like, like, yeah, it must just be that Kayla's conveyed to them that she's out, right? Because you don't have fights for her.

At best, you have the Amanda Nunes fight. You know, maybe you can get a rematch there depending on how that ends up shaking out. Should it do? And maybe if Valentina Shvchenko is still winning, you know, she beats Natalia Silva. It's not that have anything else to do with her. So then maybe you could do that, right? But after that, there's nothing, you know, like be a mosquito's on the come-up, but whatever. there's nobody you know we're not doing a jocelyn edwards thing or whatever so like yeah

that would make just so much sense to have a ready made opponent for her and frankly to just get a name in a way class that needs some level of help but then i take that one step further and it's like okay pacheco could also just be someone to carry the torch for a little bit afterwards right like if kela's gone and maybe pacheco's just somebody you can hit your wagon to for at least a little bit while you try and keep this division afloat. So are you just absolutely bearing it? You're saying screw it, we're done. We are, we don't want to,

we don't want to be in the women's band-and-weight business anymore, which, you know, fine. Like, I'm not, that's not like, oh, you have to be involved. It's a really bad weight class. So if you wanted to cut it, I think there's an argument for it. But like, what is the point of the money? Like, I guess that's where I'm coming down. Like, you have,

won the game. You have all the money. You make all the money in MMA. You make a billion dollars a year. Why can't, do you think Larissa Bacheco needs a million to fight? No, she's fought in karate combat. There's not a chance they paid her that much money. You have all the resources. Why, how are you not even interested? Like, how are you not even like, you know what? Let's talk. Let's talk to management and see. And we can give you a low ball offer and maybe you'll take that anyway. But just to be like, nah, is like, do you like the sport? Because that, to me, that's the question.

No, I know, but that's the question that hasn't been asked, right? Like, everybody is asking this the wrong way. And you heard it yesterday on the TKO call or whatever, where somebody asked Shapiro and was like, what do you say to the claims that the product is decreasing? And then he says a lie or whatever, and that's fine. But the question of like, the question to Dana White and to McMaynard and Sean Shelby and the crew, the brass is not why are the cards bad or like why are we, you know, people are saying that the product is declining.

The question is, do you like the sport? do you like the sport? Because at least just be honest and be like, no, this is a moneymaking vehicle. And we're going to ring this thing and dry at your expense. Because you're not, none of what you're doing is showing that you like, like the sport. And I cannot believe I've been forced to say this. But for the past like six months, I've said this a lot more than I ever thought I would have. Joe Silva was not a good man.

Just not. Like you read the emails. Not a good person. seemed like a terrible person to work for, right? He loved the MMA and he loved fights and he made fun and fights. And sometimes he was petty and belligerent and an asshole. Absolutely.

But like you can't look at his career and be like, yeah, that's a guy who just was interested in the earnings before debt or whatever. Like he made him fun fights and they don't do that shit anymore. And they don't even pretend. Like, it cannot cost them a lot of money to sign Larissa Bacheco. And I don't know if she'd deliver you a fun fight. You got a chance with it. Like, she's been historically pretty fun.

And it's better than just being like, no, whoever wants to come in for $4 off contender series. Like, I hate that these people are running this sport because they don't give a fuck about it. Yeah. I mean, trust me. I mean, it's not just UFC fans feeling this. It's WWE fans feeling it too. I mean, Mark Shapiro is the same thing. Apparently everybody says that.

Let me tell you, because we're 25 minutes away from Bronstein coming on. You know what nobody has ever fucking said about RAF, that they don't love what they're doing? It comes through so very, very clear that they were excited and enthusiastic about the product they are putting out and what they are doing. and what they are doing. And it, you know, maybe this is an in exact comparison. But like, I spent a lot of time in the tech startup world. And there's just a huge difference in the, the energy, the vibe, the experience of working for a new tech startup on the rise versus working for a company

that everybody just already, you know, we're looking at our bonus structures and like, whatever, who cares, we're here. Like, this is a comfortable job. And the UFC just feels like that. And bring, like, some people in who are young and energetic and want to make this product better. And sign good fighters. Like, just sign them. I don't know what we're doing, man.

It's the money making. That's what it's all about. It's why they're overpricing tickets. They didn't even care if they sell at arenas anymore. They haven't sold out a building in a long-ass time. But it doesn't matter because their pricing. people out and the people that are paying the premiums to go are giving them that bottom line. Plus they're making $7.7 billion from Paramount.

And like Luke Thomas said on with Pablo Torres, they're just getting, Paramed's just getting rinsed on this entire deal. Like they're, they're, they're making money. There's no, there's no chance. They get any of this money back. Like they'll get some. They're making money, but not in a direct path. No, no, no.

They are making money in that Paramount has direct connected access to some of the most important political movers in the world. Yeah. And just look how Dana's been doing his media rounds heading into this fight. Just, hey, I don't give a shit if you don't like what we're doing with Trump. Like, we don't care what the fans think. Like it's just that attitude, the whole just don't watch it. Like, and it's just accepted because there's like, who cares? even if they don't watch it.

Like, we're going to charge $475 for a balcony ticket to our event. There's going to be a whole bunch of people that are going to pay it. So fine. No big deal. Dude, I've been saying this. I don't care that they're aligned with Trump. Like, that doesn't, that's fine. I don't, don't lie to me.

That's the thing to me. Exactly. Like, just say that you say that you are a political organization. Say it. And that's fine. There's nothing inherently wrong with that being a sports organization. that leans to one side of the political spectrum. Because, like, when you say that this is not a political event,

that is a lie on its face. It is an event at a political institution and, in your direct words, celebrating the 250th anniversary of America, which is a country. So by definition, it is a political event. But even in, like, the most creptuous way of viewing things, Do you see the, and I don't know if we've confirmed this, but I have no reason to believe this. We talked about this previously. I think it was Hawani saying that there's going to be a $1.5 million ticket package for the White House event.

This is a political event. It is because you're not spending $1.5 million to watch Justin Gagey and knocked out by Elliott-Depurray. Nobody's doing that. Nobody alive wants to do that to be there. You're doing it so you can sit next to a bunch of very important political movers. and talk to them about whatever your interests are. And I, you know, we could have a whole separate conversation on lobbying and my thoughts on it. But that's not what this is about.

I'm not here to make a judgment call on whether lobbying is good or bad or that ticket. Like, I don't know. My point is this is a political event. You are a political organization. Just say that. And I won't care. But I don't like when you lie to me because it makes me think, it's not to make me think. You're lying because you think I'm stupid and I'm not.

Give me the dignity of telling me this shit to my face. Perhaps a new title for the cabinet. Justin Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gachie from her good friend Michael Beale. Yes, Chad Bronstein joining us in about 20 minutes to talk all the big news in the wonderful world of Real American Freestyle and R.A.F and all of that. So what else do we have here? Let's see. Will we be surprised if Hamzat and Sean make it to fight night? They're going to fight.

We talked about this. They're going to make it. They're going to do it. So don't you worry. No doubt about it. Interesting. Do you think Hamzat gets taken down by Islam Makachev? Probably not, but I wouldn't say it's impossible.

What do you think of Hamzat saying, I mean, obviously they're friends, him confidently saying that Arm and Saruki would beat Sean Strickland. Um that seems incorrect but you know I mean he's just gonna be so outsized in that fight Did you did you see the clip of armine and Joel Alvarez

Oh like coming together and Yeah it was awesome Yeah did you see that where armine just looks and it was like dude you're enormous how did we fight And Arnold was always a really big lightweight anyway But he's clearly put on a little bit of size of Walterweight And Armin is he's a big lightweight, but he's not a big lightweight. And he's looking up at Joel and be like, dude, you were really big.

It was incredible. Yeah, man. And Armin, like, Armin ran him over. I would be the shit out of him, too. Yeah, that was crazy. Yeah. That was that performance. No doubt about it.

I would very confidently pick Sean Strickland over Roman Serruking because weight class exists for reason. Yeah. And I think Armand is simply too small to, but, you know, that's your boy and you can get a shot in at the guy you're about to fight. Yeah. As far as Islam, I don't, again, I think Islam would be too small to really do it. Again, it wouldn't be impossible.

Islam is very tricky, particularly in clinched situations where we haven't really seen a ton of Armin. Armin does a lot more of his takedown work on like shot low singles and stuff. But I'm not Armin, sorry, Hamzot. But yeah, Hamzot is a very large man. He's going to be a dude we look back on and are like, how are you making welterweight? And he wasn't half the time.

So that's how. Masters, Coppulov is at one point really highly tipped. Now he said two losses and on the early prelims. How important is a win for him here and his career? Do we leave that? Pretty, pretty important. I talked about this in No Bet's Bar. I am surprised at how much we've just written Coppola off, right?

Like, because you go back and look at his, he's an underdog, DeTulio. Go back, his loss is, they don't look bad right now, you know? Fluffy? Okay, that's fluffy, I'm sure. Paulo Costa? Paulo might be back back, you know? I might be fighting for the light heavyweight belt. Yeah, like next.

And then Robocop who is, you know, I think, I don't think Koppelov was ever great. I think he's probably been sort of a top 15 fringe, top 15 kind of guy. Never in the top 10, but in that 10 to 20 range. It's always felt like a right answer for him. And Tullio hasn't beaten anybody of note. If he lose to Tullio, it'll be the worst loss of his career. But like, or certainly his UFC career, I don't really remember what he did prior to join the promotion. motion, by like a good chunk.

And three in a row, how old is he? I'm actually going to look this up. How old is it? 35. Yeah, I was going to say mid-30s. Just turned 35. Oh, May the fourth is his birthday. Wow.

May the fourth be with you, buddy. Perhaps a bet on Roman Coppulov with this news. I already had a bet on him before that. Oh, beautiful. There you go. I think he's undervalued against Margaretulio. Oh, we have one thing. We have a piece of business take care of at some point.

Oh, that is a good reminder. because I totally forgot. So did I. So after we wrap with Chad, we'll do our watch party draft for UFC 320. Boy, do I need a good draft? Boy, do I need a good draft? I'm getting rinsed. I've taken a lead, but I mean, I think last week I went or last one I went like six and one or something.

Yeah, I got closer. So it's doable to just get right back in the mix. And last card was hard. They were not. We talked about it beforehand. It was like, I think every underdog can win. win. And then all of them did for me and none of them did for you. It was tough. I think I'd Paul,

I had Paul Costa and literally that's it. That was it. He was my only win. And again, I, and even in the Paul Acosta one, I felt pretty good after round two. I was like, I don't know, man. Okay. I don't remember what question I was answering before then. We were talking about Roman Coppulov. Oh, but yeah, he needs to win. Three lost in a row at 35.

he's probably close to his way out if he loses this one. Yeah, dude, contender, we've already getting contender series fights announced. Like, we're approaching that time. Coswell, will the UFC ever see a male champion reach John Jones title defenses in one weight division with the amount of fighters going for champ champ status? Nope. No. No.

And even, um, even if they weren't just trying to jump divisions, you, I mean, this is, if someone was like, tell me one thing about Jed Mishu and his thoughts on MMA, it's that defending titles is hard. And it's true. It's very, very hard. So. Also, sure we're clear, John Jones doesn't have the most. So no.

Like, but that actually kind of makes it even more attainable because technically DJs the is the has the most at 11 um Anderson also should have 11 I still think it's incredibly stupid then Anderson doesn't have 11 because one of them didn't count as a title defense because Travis Luter missed weight

yeah but he beat him so like they should both have 11 a GSP I think has nine and Aldo should have nine as well um so like Jones at seven or eight I think it's eight

um I guess if you want to add others, you know, because it's non-consecutive, because he dropped the belt five times or whatever. Like eight could theoretically be achievable, right? As far as not consecutive, I think that's just never going to happen. Like Volks are like five, right? Like combined, I think it's five or six combined. Like that's within grasp.

And that's the thing I've said for months is like, the most disappointing part of Ilya to me is that he could that is a dude who could reign over a division for 10 years he could he could spend five years atop the sport slaughtering everybody and building a genuine legacy of like that you know and instead he's from greatness or whatever

and it sucks and I hate that and it's just it's never going to be that again I don't think Yeah, we never got Ilya. It was how Marab was winning me over because he was just like, I don't care. I was wondering if him in my bells. Like, all right, Marab, rock on.

Yeah. No Ilya Mozar. Probably not getting Ilya Armin. It's tough. And with it, like, I felt the same way about Islam too. It's just like, dude, you had four. You set the record, so I guess, sure. But like, we also all talked about it.

All of your wins are weird. Like all of your lightweight title wins. You beat Charles, which is great and unequivocal. And then you defended against featherweight, short notice, same featherweight that you beat. Dustin Porre, who we all love and respect. But, you know, at that stage of his career, okay? And then short notice, Dr. Borkano, like, could you just have beaten Armin? Could you, could somebody defend a belt against Armin's Rukin?

Please. I mean, they did try to do that. Again, none of this was his fault. 100%. It's just like, you want somebody to put... His whole path to the title wasn't his fault. Yeah, you want somebody to put a real legacy, and that's just not at all what people think about anymore.

And it's... I hate it. I think champ champs are stupid, and I don't care for them. I think they're good if they're earned, but, like, none of them are earned. So it's just dumb. Uh, Hosada, thank you. Are the PFL the Fox rumors true?

Not that I've heard. I've been hearing this rumor quite a bit, but I have no idea if it's real or not. I mean, this is, by the way, the birth of fights came from this rumor. That's right, yeah. Because of the rebrand and coming up on Fox. And as we know, John Martin now follows me. So fights happening soon. Fights on Fox.

Uh, yeah, big news for fights. PFL soon to be fights. Uh, July 18th. the rematch for the fights middleweight title Castella von Steenis versus Johnny Eblen which is a great fight by the way great fight

the problem is it's going to be running the same night as UFC Oklahoma City which if the main event I'm hearing comes to fruition no one's watching PFL and I'll leave it at that oh I forgot that we

oh I was just trying to think it's like oh now I remember yeah we can't We can't. I refuse to believe that that's real. It's real. It's very, very real. I know.

I'm not calling anybody a liar, but. Yeah. It's not. Yeah. It's a much bigger fight. What's the arrested development quote? I don't understand this. And I choose not to engage with it.

Yeah. Plus, uh, R.F. 11 is happening that day as well. So I mean, we, we don't have any announcements for that card just yet. but we assume arm and serruki will be a part of it somehow so there you have it so a few more minutes for chad bronzzi jo's speaking of r a f uh george is getting upset where does volkov waldo cortez a costa winner go with the logjam at the top of the division hoak it if he wins it's a genuinely great question because the winner probably should just be fighting for a belt

and they're not going to yeah um but it's i'd be i'd be I'm thinking it's probably hoak it. I do think I actually do just think that that's it. Probably is just hoak it. Which kind of sucks because, like, heavyweight doesn't always have a glut of genuine contenders, and now there are a few of them. And,

Tom Aspinal hasn't fought like any of these dudes, so, I mean, he's fought Volkov, so it would be less bad there, but, like, yeah, I think it's just going to be those dudes, and that's fine. Yeah. I don't I don't dislike this at all so but I mean Josh got to take care of business but yeah I mean Waldo's already building up a fight with Josh anyway so if he goes out there and wins and Josh goes

out and beats Derek Lewis like we just have the media day clip of like yeah I saw Josh Hokit at the PI and I called him a word I'm not going to say here so and he was like oh I'm trying to sell the fight and yeah Josh by the way if for those who have been missing Josh Hokit press conferences You will see him tomorrow. Friday, too, God. The White House press conference will be going down before a ceremony away. We're putting all of them on it, which seems so stupid. Yeah, I guess so.

Some Kyle Dachis in our lives. Some Boe Nickel? We get a bow nickel presser. We respect Kyle Dachis, but why is he there? He's not going to get a question. If he gets a question, I want everyone to be very clear. If somebody asks Kyle Dachis a question, I all but guarantee you, some producers like, please ask Kyle Doc's question.

Do you ever ask that question? I'm going to say, I'm going to give you a hot take right now. One of the hottest takes I've ever given on the show. We're going to be talking on the people's pre-fight show, maybe on the watch party, Jed, of Kyle Doc is stealing that press conference. This is, I think, the hottest take you've ever given.

He's quite witty. He's quite witty. He's quite witty. And you know what? He's got the perfect dance partner. to make him shine. Because Bo likes to say things that are super unpopular. He needs a pro wrestling manager badly.

Won't use it. He'll say the wrong thing. Kyle will be cheered. Look like a hero. Plus Kyle's from Philly. So he's not that far from there. So he's going to have some of that home cooking crowd. I think this could be a good day for Kyle Dachas if he plays his cards right.

The hottest take you've ever given. I hope you're correct. That'd be fun. I hope I'm correct, too. Is Amanda Hebas getting released after losing to Fatima Klein? How many of she lost in a row? Three? I got a look at Amanda Hebas right now.

Man, when you start Googling Amanda, it takes you a long way to get to Hebas. Yeah. She has lost three in a row and four of her last five. She did wheel kick Luana Pinheiro, which I recall. Yes, she did. Maybe. it is like you said they like to be up on

they do but we are about to be up on contender series so expect a glut of firings or not re-signings for you know long-term fighters who maybe make a little bit more but yeah Docus on the next UFC game cover

I'm telling you right now Kyle Doccus goes to the White House and finishes Boe Nickel it's the year of the Doccus I mean that would genuinely be cool as hell It'd be one of the... We check off the box.

Yeah, we check off the first box of the funniest outcome. All I want is all of the best outcomes. Like, I don't really care who wins between Steve Garcia and Diego Lopez, but let the underdog win every other fight, and it would just be the best. I don't actually know Pereira-Gonz the underdog, but... Raja Jackson takes a plea deal. I saw that. I mean, I didn't see that, but yeah, it's...

My professional legal opinion is, duh. I wouldn't want to go to court for that either because I would lose. Cosbo is Amosov versus Alvarez, good matchmaking or bad, because nobody but hardcores know who Amosov is, and Joel has the potential to put on tons of fun fights if he fights more actively. I am very torn. This is a great question. It really is.

I am torn, I think, and is the cop-out answer, the proof of the pudding is going to be in the Eaton. If this fight is good, it will be a good matchmaking. If this fight is bad, it would be bad matchmaking. And that sounds like a really stupid answer. That's a John Madden answer. It's a really dumb answer, but follow my logic here. If this fight is going to be fun,

I think the more likely scenario is that Joel Alvarez wins, right? Because I think that if Amosov wins, it is probably holding Joel Alvarez down. He scores some takedowns. Alvarez can't sub him off his back, positional control, not the most exciting thing, which is why he's part of a two-part

and a fun police parlay that I have for this weekend with Grant Dawson, the fun police. But if that doesn't happen, and Joel Alvarez, and this fight is fun, it's because Joel Alvarez either can create enough scrambles off his back that we're having good engaging roles on the floor, And the striking is fun, dynamic, and exciting.

And so, and that's also the scenario where, like, if Joel Alvarez wins this, if Joel Alvarez wins this fight, that's good. If Amosov wins a boring fight, that's bad, right? Because Amosov hasn't really moved up the Walthorite rankings, and no one will care about this performance. So you haven't done anything with Amosov, and you've handed a loss to an exciting guy. And so that's bad matchmaking. but if Alvarez wins and you know then he beat a dude who hardcore fans respect and his next fight can be a guy to get in the rankings or whatever so cop out answer but it feels like to me this feels like that there's a good outcome and a bad outcome and this the quality of the matchmaking will be determined by which outcome we get I mean what an answer I think it's good matchmaking I think they're putting they're giving Amos off a shot here

putting him against Joel Alvarez and, you know, and they're giving Joel shot too. This is a big card. And they're put it, they're put in like a prime time position. And there's a reason why we're starting the watch party with that fight. Like, we're not skipping over that way. Because Joe Alvarez has been my boy for years. Yeah. So I think it's good matchmaking.

But yeah, could could there be a whirl where the fight stinks? Sure. But there have been many of exciting fight that has been made where the fight is not great. So it's one of my proudest moments. at MMA fighting, Mike, is I think it was after the Elves Brenner when where Casey came on a watch

a post show and was just like, I get it now. You've been talking about Joel Alvarez for years. I get it, Jen. I was like, yes, people have come around to understand that this guy rocks. I think it was that one. Maybe it was the Jacazi one. But when Casey was like,

I understand, that guy's really cool. It made me very happy. Yeah, it's not easy to, it's not easy to get Casey on your side. To sway Casey's opinion on anything. It's very, very difficult. Very, very difficult. We're moments away from Chad Bronsonstein joining the show. Moments away.

I think he's in the lobby. I'm just waiting for the camera to get turned on and then we can bring him in and talk about what's going. Are we skipping Rebetsky versus Dawson? Yes, but not because we don't appreciate the fight. we think it's a good fight. However, I do. We are one of the,

we are down a man tomorrow in terms of coverage. Not tomorrow, Saturday. Or Saturday. We're down a guy. So we have to kind of pick up the slack a little bit. And unfortunately, that means starting the watch party

a little bit later than we would like. There's also a chance that that fight might not even be that interesting. I hope it is because Robechke is the man. But it's possible Grant Dawson just has to play safety first, tackling. Yeah. Let's take a couple more and then we'll get to our special guest. This is a really good question. If Strickland wins Saturday, would this be Eric Nixick's greatest

accomplishment as a coach? So perfect timing, by the way. I believe my interview with Eric Nixik just dropped on the YouTube channel so you can go check that out. We talked a lot about this by Francis and Ghanu and everything else kind of going on with this team that's sort of in the news. But yeah, we're at this rank. You know, Strickland B. is he is up there obviously francis winning the heavyweight title is a big one and some other things that have happened along the way but yeah is this is this is this the crowning moments of eric nixix's coaching career and for extreme couture as a gym it's still strickland dizzy um because i mean you said it earlier mike like a lot of smart people are

giving sean a real chance here um and we'll talk about on the preview show tomorrow what i think of this matchup but like everyone can see how he wins. Everybody can imagine a victory for Sean Strickland. Now, the probability of that, you know, may vary depending on who you are. But everyone can see that Sean Strickland is very good at defensive wrestling, disengage, kick him in the belly a bunch.

Hamzot theoretically is bad cardio. You take this into later rounds. You win classic Sean. Like that is a style matchup that you can see the avenues for him. I distinctly remember heading into the Izzy fight being like, I there's what is Sean Strickland going to do? He can't do anything against Israel. Distine has a significantly better kickbox than him.

He can't do anything. And then he beat him pillar to post for 25 minutes. So, um, and I was, but far from the only person who said that heading into the Izzy Strickland fight. Like it's just that looked like so much worse of a style matchup on paper. I think that will remain Nick Sixth's crowning achievement thus far. Yeah. Obviously an incredible win if they pull it off.

Me, Rock and Mrs. Don Davis. You know, I don't because my good friend, John Martin, is doing a hell of a job over there. Well, good buddy, John Martin. Yes. Fights. Fights. I hope this happens.

I hope they go to Fox and they call it fights. I genuinely, I don't need you guys to even pay me a royalty on that. I just just do it so we can clip it and forever I can be like I named that promotion I was mine I mean what else can you do from there I will leave I have to retire John I know you're watching you're a big fan I understand so am I you can clip this this is I legally give you permission to use fights I seek no monetary benefit off it that's all you I just I want to gloat about it all the consideration I need is gloating

Duke bad duck Gaghi and Chandler got top five opposition right away when they got signed and Amosov who's better than both is getting a slower path Amosov is not better than Justin Gaichi I just need us to be very clear on that and I like Yarosov Amosov quite a lot he's not better than Justin Gachin. He's better than Michael Chandler

though frankly less accomplished with Michael Chandler. I do think they slow-rolled him a bit. I thought the Magny matchup was really smart. This is the one where I'm like, that's weird. Just because I thought after Magny, he would be getting a top 15 guy and instead he's not. But, you know, I don't know.

Yes. Well, we have a special guest joining us. Is it game time? It's game time. It's officially game time. Let's move him right in the middle, where he deserves to be. He is the co-founder of Real American Freestyle.

Lots going on with RIF right now. Let us say hello live to the one and only Chad Bronstien. Chad, how are you, my man? I'm doing well, Mike. Good to see you. It's good to see you, too. I feel like we talk every other day now at this point. Yeah, I know.

It's actually we've seen each other mostly every three weeks, but we actually have our longest break. I think you missed me. Yeah, and luckily you guys have some big news drop earlier today. RIF NextGen, this is something you guys have been talking about for a little bit, but now it is official. For those who are unaware of what is going on here, talk about REF next gen and the future of wrestling here.

Yeah, you know, when we started this league, the initial thought process was that there's never been a professional league as we mentioned, and you wanted to have RAF so that the younger generation could be surrounded by their icons people they look up to and then have goals to set out that they want to be. So I think part of that was creating RIF, the professional side, of the business.

And then we always had aspirations when we started this to really change the way wrestling is done. And we partnered with USA Wrestling on this too. It's just to really create a stage that the kids have to compete on and also have their icons in the audience watching them. So I think this is going to be something that we're very excited about. You get to see the best kids around.

And also kids just want to be on a stage and participate. But we'll have two events a year, 12 next-gen tournaments, and then two main stage events where you'll have a Friday night where the best, the champion, the number one contender in the youth, will compete on that Friday before the Saturday RAF show. It will be our call like wrestle-palooza. But yeah, that's the consensus of what we, that's the synopsis of what we created. Very, very cool.

I mean, to see this happen as quickly as it did, were you surprised by that? Did you expect it to happen for like a summer launch? Or did you think when this idea first came to fruition, maybe end of the year, maybe early 2027, or it's because maybe the success of the organization so far, you guys were able to jumpstart a little bit sooner? So to be honest, you always like when I first met, again, RAS started in a wrestling room, right?

So when I first met, I was thinking about this idea that I met Izzy and Hulk and, you know, all these different people. But when we started this, I told, we were talking to Izzy myself. and the team, Eric, et cetera, about doing youth. And really, it's just making sure that we are ready to do it, Mike. You know, like you've been to, I would say you by far out of any media that have been to the most events. So you've gotten to see them first hand. And I think for us, it was when did we feel that we were ready to do this?

And I think we're coming in nine shows. And we felt that the summer we have a rinse and repeat model where we feel like our events are, you know, doing really well. And that we felt this is the time to take that on. So the first event, July 19th in Miliwake, which is Algonquin for the good land. Shout out to Wayne's world. The day after R.A.F. is 11, right? R.F. 11, the day after R.F. 11. Yes.

Ben Ascran's birthday. Oh, Ben Asken's birthday. And he lives in Milwaukee. So we promised him that when we were doing, we were planning for the summer, he's like, you got to do Milwaukee on my birthday. And an interesting fact about Milwaukee, about this RAF event, within three hours, we broke a record on pre-sell for Milwaukee. Milwaukee is going, I mean, every event we get, but this has been wild in Milwaukee. So it's going to be a great event.

There could be a lot of potential big names competing on this car. Milwaukee is kind of a hotbed between them. Chicago's not that far, so we can get a lot of different people on there. But how many wrestlers, like if this thing just fills up, you get the capacity of the youth wrestlers competing on, July 19th. How many people could actually compete? I'll be honest to you, we already, it's already, it's going to, it's already filling up. Like within a matter of launching this a few hours ago, we have people from Mexico, all different places asking to be a part of it, but we are going to fill, we're starting up with 1,200, first 1,200 signups. That's it. So 1,200, it's

24 kids per weight class. We have 47 way classes between 8 U, 10, you, 12, you, 15 U.U, but it's it will be a fully sold out first event and then we'll move as we've progressed we'll move into a larger format when we can but we're starting off with this format to start just to get it right and just like when we did r a f o one in cleveland it was amazing then we learned we had learning lessons to get it better and better so assume that our first one we think is going to be great but we'll continue to improve every time we do something so what will the setup be like will just be like a hundred mats lying around and just non-stop matches over and over again? Yeah, I mean, we have a partner with our partnership with Dallamer, right?

So we'll have R-AF official tournament mats that will have 12 mats. And then we'll lead to a finals, right? So you'll have a final stage where it will be streamed on a platform that we can't announce today, but we'll announce in two weeks. And the kids will feel like they're on the big stage when you're in the finals. and then you have walkouts, you know, just make it really feel like the professionals, make them feel like they really have this unique experience and that they want to keep coming back and they have something to look forward to every time we host an event.

So we are looking forward to that July 19th, the debut of RAF NextGen, which is after RIF 11, the day after, will be Sunday in Milwaukee. Of course, we get RIF 9 coming up at the end of the month. That's a big one. A lot of big matches seems like every day, the social media, counts announced in a new match. Of course, the main event is Gable Steven making his debut against Alexander Romano. We get Kobe Covington versus Chris Wyden. Armand-Soruckian

versus Mugsy is on this car. I think that threw people off. Is that, I was looking at the graphic. Is that the opening match of R-F-9 is Armin versus Mugsy? Yeah. You know, and we first off, you know, people are, you know, we had some backlash on that, but it's also the most talked about match, right? So, and people count Mugsy out, but people also don't realize that Mugsy actually just beat Clay Gwee.

So it's like Mugsy, Mugsy shouldn't be underestimated. And every time you see him on the stage is getting better. And Armin is Armin, right? I think for people are saying, well, Armand's opening up the card. We're disrespecting Armin. No, when we talk to Armin, we actually, Armand agree with our idea. It's going to create excitement to open up the show to have that matchup.

And so I think the opening of our show is just as important of the ending of our show. And I think that a match is going to be extremely exciting for the audience. the audience. And then two weeks later, Armin Saruki, and he's like the Cal Ripkin of RAF. He's just competing at every single event against Tony Ferguson? How do we pull this one up? This is this one, especially after the Mugsy one was announced, it seemed like two days later, we got the news of the Tony news. Well, Izzy and we've been working on Tony for a while, right? So Tony, I think, again, so people go, oh, to get Tony Russell, right? I think people forget that Tony was a two-time NCA All-American, right?

He's a great wrestler. That's what they forget, because they go to the UFC. They go with their boxing, but Tony's a great wrestler. So this is going to be a great matchup between him and Armand. But to your point, you know, Armine has told us multiple times if he's not fighting, he wants to wrestle every single month. So, you know, we have, Armine's going to also be on a July card, too. We just have announced.

We don't, that will be a special announcement match too that will make soon. I mean, how, what, what special, what more special occasion? and then live here on the MA Fighting YouTube channel to make those announcements. Mike, we can talk live when I make that announcement because it's probably going to be announced in Dallas. But you know I'll give it to you. But there's going to be so many good matchups this summer that we haven't announced for Milwaukee,

that we haven't announced for, you know, our show for August 22nd, we have a really, we're waiting on finally finalizing these two contracts, but you'll love this matchup that we make. in Cleveland. But there's so many, you know, so many good matchups that we have on the horizon. I think that even in Dallas, you see you have Frankie Agar versus Marab that people wouldn't probably expect, right? And then you have Snyder back going against Givie. Like there's Jason Nolfe wrestling who's on a tear right now. So is Kyle. There's so many good matchups

that you get a wide array of wrestling every time you tune in. Kennedy Blades is no longer on the Dallas card, right? That, that matches off. Yeah, Kennedy's off. She'll probably come back in Milwaukee. Okay. All right, that's good. I know a lot of people are asking about her. One other name I wanted to ask you about, it's a man that has been taking over the news headlines pretty much all week long, because he's getting ready to defend the UFC middleweight title. His name is Hamzaa Chimayev. You said, Mike, wait until you see what we announced on Saturday when we're in Philadelphia, and it's freaking Hamzaa Chimayef. Not a lot of people were prepared

for that announcement. If Hamzaa Shemayev rolls through Sean Strickland just does what he's done to a lot of other people, and that's not going to be an easy test. But if he goes in there and just ruffles up and just dominate Sean Strickland, takes very little damage. In your heart of hearts, when can we see Hamzat Shamaif debut at RAF? June 13th in St. Louis. Oh, okay. He will, he will be on a card right after.

As long as he comes out there, like you said, and he's ready to go. He's excited to wrestle, right? So I think we could see him maybe even a couple times this summer wrestling. Really? Yeah. I mean, he loves wrestling, right? Okay. He's off.

There's a lot of good matchups for him, too, and he's a top-tier wrestler, right? So, you know, he's, the sky's a limit with that. So we're excited. You know, we've been working really closely with his manager, sweep, an agent who's been with us at a lot of the RIFs. And, yeah, there's, again, if so, we'll make sure you know about it, Mike, of who he will be wrestling. But we have that we know who he will be wrestling if he does come onto the card. Oh, okay. Yeah.

So I want to just bolster you with questions right now. A name that people are going to be surprised by. Yeah, I think it'll be surprised at it. I mean, maybe surprised, but it'll be excited about it. More on the wrestling side or more on the. MMA side. I don't know. I can't give it away.

There's so many options here. I mean, it's like hundreds of, you can know, but you may know by Monday. I don't, Tuesday, you know,

so that we have to see. Okay, so no broken bones or broken limbs. All, all set and done, Hamzod. June or July. June or July.

Okay. If it's a war, probably July. But if he goes out there and clobber Sean Strickland, we're going to see him in St. Yeah. I think that you can see him in St.

There's going to be, I think, you know, we're talking to a couple others. We're talking for St. Louis. Walking Buckley, he's from St. Louis. He showed up. He had a pretty tough matchup the first time with Pat Downey, but looking to have him on that card as well. So, yeah, there's a, and then obviously on the wrestling side, we'll have a bunch of exciting.

We're getting ready over the next couple weeks to start getting, we haven't finalized St. Louis yet, but we're working on it. And we're getting close to it. When last thing. Kobe also, Kobe Covington's like, wants to wrestle as men. And he's kind of like Armand where he wants to wrestle as much as he can. I love that. Jed putting out the suggestion, Habe v. Daniel Cormier.

I mean, let's just blow the doors off it. Can you imagine that? Good God. Although, I mean, the matchmaking you guys have done, that would not surprise me if we book something crazy. We have a really good matchmaking team. You've met him, Mike Mosul. It's Izzy. It's Ben Ascran.

It's Lance Palmer and Willie Saylor. And even with like where we're going with, youth side like willie sailor is the number one rancor in both college wrestling uh olympic you know and youth he does all the bracketing for most of it so it's like uh he we're we're excited about um you know now intertwining these things and international too mike i think the one thing that we can say here we said it before but we're very close to getting our first international matchup happening in end of june or beginning of july i i can't say if i had the country i tell you right now but i'm very It's getting to a point where we're going to hopefully in the next week be able to talk about our first international matchup as well.

Love that. I mean, I know you guys want to do that a little bit sooner, but then the world kind of changed a little bit. We went to Bahrain, Izzy and I, the week before. Nice to, yeah. I could give you some names of countries we're looking at, right? We're talking about Japan, Kazakhstan. And, you know, we were supposed to be in Bahrain as we, as we, that's, where you're referring to Mike,

we, if the war didn't happen, we would have been there instead of Dallas. We would have had our event in May. And then also we're eventually going to go to like an Abu Dhabi or Saudi or one of those areas. And then, you know, there's so many countries that Reston's really popular in, Bulgaria, Mongolia, obviously Russia, et cetera.

So if you guys get questions for Chad, we'll have them for a couple of minutes. This is an interesting one from our guy lazy bed. Chad, is there ever a possibility of an open-weight R-A-F tournament of champions? You know, there's always a possibility of anything, but there is something that, again, we'll wait here. I'll come back on the show in two weeks, but we have something really cool we're going to announce that will be a special event that will happen on our anniversary show. But I will come back on here on between May 18th and 19th and to talk to Mike about it.

But it could be something similar to that, but a little different. But there's plenty of stuff that we're working on right now. Well, I mean, I'm logging my travel miles with this R.A.F. I already have travel book for Dallas. I already have travel book for St. Louis. I'm sure travel to Milwaukee is coming up as well. Jed, do you have any... Mike, if you weren't there in that back of the press conference

and the back of the standing on your... Whatever you're standing on to make sure we can see you. Or at the end, it wouldn't feel like an RIF. I got to say, I think everyone would be a little upset if you weren't there. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't just supposed to go to Philly and then I end up going. So it worked out great. We're actually going to send somebody else there, but he forgot he had a wedding to go to.

And then I got the hot tag and I was happy to get it. But by the way, Chad, we do a draft. We do this sort of promotional draft. It's just kind of a fun thing and people sort of vote on who like a roster of competitors to compete for each. So the UFC is won. PFL is one. be a BKFC in there and there's always seemed to be like a rotating fourth because a promotion will get we'll get some some traction and then they just fall off but happy to say R a F actually made

the cut they were the fourth one and this man right here Jed Bishu is actually the he was the drafter of R a F and he won the draft the fans voted and jed won the draft who did I draft in the first round I'm like, oh, I drafted Armin because Armand. Armour's like a fantasy football for RIF. Like, you know, he's going to score. That's a good one, yeah. Yeah, it was just absolutely perfect for him.

Who else did I draft? Mike, I drafted Habib, because I feel like you guys could get Habib going. He said he'd never fight again. He didn't say never wrestle again. So something to put on your radar. I have your team, Jed. I have your team.

Oh, you have my team? Tell me his team. I got to hear it. Armand Sarukian, Hamzaa Shemayev, Gable Steeveson, Josh Hokit, Kayla Harrison, Habibnabagh, Madov, Bo Nickle. Oh, Hokeet. Chad, have you been following the rise of the Incredible Hoke? Yeah, you know, he wrestled. So, you know, Izzy and I work on a matchups all the time in certain conversation,

but Izzy's talking to them right now. And I would assume that he's going to make a debut eventually on REF, too. You know, you got to think. about anyone that's wrestled, I think it's under like anyone that's wrestled or an all-American in college, you know, Hokit wrestled Bo-Nickel, right? I think Bo-Nichael, I think when we started with the Bo-Nickle, Bo-Nickle and Holly Home are the two first MMA crossovers for R.A. But I could assume, I mean, I think anyone that's an all-American and our thesis was this, is that if you wrestle in college and you fight and you can do both, why wouldn't you? Like, they love, they love,

it's their, the sport they love. So I think that most people, people that wrestle, some people that haven't wrestled, that have MMA wrestling are reaching out to us all the time. But I think it's best to have some sort of base in wrestling. And he just feels like a natural fit too. Yeah. Let's skip the inch. Chase says, are you guys going to pay for John Jones versus Daniel Cormier? That's the one that, uh, if there's a, if there's a diamond in the rough amongst the combat sports community, if you guys could somehow put that one together, that'd be pretty incredible. You got you, you, you have Izzy Martinez.

who has a great relationship with both with both of them jad you're shaking your head but uh chat has there been any movement on that whatsoever i mean there's there's always talks just a matter of uh if we can make both of them you know both of that that happened but again this you know i think the sky's the limit just depends on the right place where we're doing it etc but again never i think you guys both knows never say never i can't say i don't i don't ever and i think you guys also know that I think we built a good enough relationship, but you know, I won't say something if I don't, if it hasn't happened. But we'll say it when it does, when things do happen. And you never know. Look, Chad, I don't want to tell you to do your job. If you can find a way to make John Jones

versus Daniel Cormier and Habib versus Tony, everyone will love you forever. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Like, if you do those two things, just be like, okay, well, this is better than anybody else ever. So, I mean, again, I think Izzy's been working on some things. I've been working on some things. But we just, we got, I think as I think I go back to like, Mike kind of can be, can probably elaborate with this with me. But when you come to the show, right, and it doesn't matter who you are, what sport you play, I feel like you've, you fall in love a little bit with the culture that is there and the wrestling

and that the show, right? Eric Bishop does a great job too on the production side with how you feel. But I feel like when people come. they get addicted to it. And then so I think the answer your guys' questions is the more people that come, say John comes to an event, Daniel comes to an event, et cetera, I think that the better opportunity we have for them to step on that map. A lot of like it.

We're trying to get GSP to come too. We've been working on. Oh, that's a great fit. Yeah. He can wrestle really well. He's been called out by Kobe. He's been called out by Armin. We have reached out.

I think when GSP comes to the show, he's going to want to wrestle. Russell. Last thing I want to ask you about, because someone asked me about this earlier. Any chance of a Boston show in the near future? Yeah. So Boston should, I mean, I could give you a look into like where we're at, like where we know we're going right now. It's like we know we have St. Louis. You guys know we have this here in Dallas, then Milwaukee, then Cleveland for our anniversary show. We're very close to doing a deal in Minnesota for September.

October, I'll give you a news once we agree to this, but it'll be a really cool spot too. And then November, we're going back to Chicago. It's like one year from how we did Cleveland, one year from Cleveland, one year for Chicago. And then we're figuring out December. But yes, 27, I guess you could see at Boston show. We're booking our 27 right now and getting for the whole year. So we're going to stick within the Midwest, East Coast, and then like Arizona or California

or Nevada. Has any conversations happened between Team RAF and Team Brock Lesnar? No, there have not been. Okay. Will there ever be? I mean, I don't, I don't know. Like I said, you never say never, but the ones, other ones you were referring to before, there has been conversations.

This, this, that, uh, Brock, there has not been in conversations about. That would be pretty big too. Yeah. But, but the ones, everyone else you mentioned, there has been conversations, but this one, no. Lazy bit said this would make perfect sense. Would be a fantastic idea to have former Cleveland State wrestler, Steep A. Mietchich on the anniversary. card. So perhaps something to

maybe wait for an announcement for it. There's been conversations there. All right. I love this. Yeah, so. Yeah. Very busy, R.F. So, Chad, thank you for hopping on. Grats on getting the next gen stuff launched and officially out there

into the universe, July 19th. That's when that kicks off the day after RIF 11. And Chad, I'll see you in Dallas in a few weeks, my man. I'll see you in Dallas. And maybe in two weeks, I'll come on and give you another big announcement. Oh, I love this. Love this idea.

Thank you both, by the way. Thank you guys, both of you guys. I appreciate the coverage of R.A.F. And you guys have been, I'll say it every show, but it's awesome that you guys really shed a light on wrestling. Yeah. You guys are doing a great job. So keep it up. I didn't want to.

I want to be clear. You didn't want to? You all won me over. You know what? Even on Ariel. You know what the thing is I listen to Ariel show it to us and both you guys, right? And I heard him say, I heard some of his guys saying the same thing. And now they love it.

but that is you know we just have i think it's again getting you guys the mainstream audience to like the sport and grow the sport has always been the goal yeah i will i've always liked watching wrestling but i was just like oh this is going to be too much and i'm not and then i watch it's like no this rocks it was great you guys have the pacing thing down the one thing on that sports needs you guys have it nailed we know what and i'll leave you guys with this when we i tell you this mike but penn state we kind of realized there that we had to get the pacing better because it was like It was our second event. I'm sitting there in the audience with Izzy.

I'm like, and Eric's in the back. We're like, oh, this is too slow, right? Because I'm a purist. I love to watch wrestling, but I know what the audience would feel. And so that's kind of when we realized that we had to get the pacing moving to a certain speed where everyone feels like, you know, it's exciting and it's not too long. Yeah. I was talking, Eric, about this in Philly.

And I was like, how did you figure this out? He goes, he goes, the stuff you see on TV, like if you go to an event, the stuff you see on TV you see in the arena. He goes, you don't see that here. What you do, like, we'll play the, the vignettes for the next match on TV. But in the arena, we got Mugsy out there chucking t-shirts on the crowd and everyone's going crazy. And then after the last t-shirt goes, ring and answer comes in, next wrestler's out. And it's like, it's just, the show never stops. And that's what sporting event. And Mike, one thing, too, is on the next gen stuff is we're going to kind of do the same thing where it's like, at the end, there'll be the finals. We'll be highlighted like a

feel like it's R-A-F and then Chale, Giuliani, like the commentary would do for the finals and then we'll have the press conference for the kids afterwards where like the winners get to do that. Just make it feel like it's, you know, they get the same experience but you'll we'll keep you guys in the loop

and again, thank you for everything. All right. Thank you very much, Chad. Good talking to you and we'll talk to a couple weeks. Talk to you guys later. All right. There he is. Chad Bronstein. Some big news there. Armand Sarukian will be competing at R.A.F. 11 as well. so the Cowherpkin Street continues.

Hamza Tchaimayef is going to be competing. If he goes out there, it just beats the soul out of Sean Strickland. He's competing in St. Louis next month. So lots going on, maybe multiple times this summer. So R.F. just hammering it right now. Doing a great job. So shout out to Chad. Shout to RIF for making that happen.

And now Jed, we were talked about drafts with Chad Bronsine. It is now time to put a pin on today's episode, this extra long episode. of the program with our UFC 328 watch party draft so the main car growing we're starting at

Alvarez Zamasov so seven total drafted correct yes should I bring the wheel up or sure yeah I'll bring I think you want to get first pick I think you so I got first pick last time and yeah

destroyed I think think there's such an obvious first choice. And I mean, I guess you could argue that there are like two or three. So maybe actually second because there might be three obvious choices. So you'd rather get the wheel of two and three. All right. Wheel is here.

So whoever, whoever hits gets first pick? Yes. Okay. Wheel is spinning. Wheel is spinning. Oh, it's a lot of blue there. That's a lot of blue. That is a lot of blue.

Okay. This might work well for you because, again, I think there are three out. There's a tier of three and I guess you're going to get two out of that tier. All right. But how could I pick anyone other than a table goatee to start this draft off? Golly. How dare you? So I'll just add a point to mine.

to mine. Minus 1,600 favorite right now. Yeah, I don't know how I could pick literally anybody other than him with the first overall pick. But I think you've got two very good choices. Yeah. I'll go Hamzaa Chamaif and I will go King Green. Yep, that's the one that I thought. Yeah.

Even though I'm not as confident in Hamzad as the minus 560. number shows. I got to take them. I'd be crazy for not taking him. Spoiler. I'm actually pretty confident in Hamzot. So I was hoping you might overthink it and not pick it. I was going to snatch him up so fast if you did that. So that leaves Joel Alvarez Amasov, Brady Buckley, Volkov, WCA, and Van Tira. And all of those are very, very, competitive. They are. Those are all very competitive.

And honestly, I don't even, like, feel massively confident either way. The odds suggest I take one of these, but I don't really want to do that. I'm going to start with Sean Brady. I think Sean Brady is going to tackle. So I have both Sean's. I've got the Sean Parley on this side of the table. As I think he. can just tackle Buckley and hopefully he doesn't get punched in the face much.

And then for the wheel. Ooh. That is a tough, tough, tough call. Yeah, these are tough. These are tough. That is a tough, tough call. I try to think, like, I guess I, I think Amosov is going to win, but at least Joel Alvarez is my boy, so I'm just not, not going to take that.

And then I, I, this might be stupid. give me Josh Van Wow Let me Josh Van Wow Okay You know what's funny is I was gonna pick Tyra Were you?

This actually worked out pretty good That worked out It's a tough pick But I would have This is the thing I don't have I just feel like Van might be getting Undervalued here

But Maybe I think he is getting Undervalued But I think there's a lot of similarities To Tyra's game To Pants' game And I think his striking's gotten a lot better.

Like, I didn't think he'd be able to go out there and hurt Brandon Moreno on the feet. And boy, did he. And then he went out there and he's so opportunistic with the finishes. So that is such a good fight. It's a great fight. But, like, I don't feel confident

in picking Volkov WCA either. So, like, no. I think the one I feel the best about is Vans' chances to retain, but I don't, if I go O for three on these final three, I wouldn't be shocked. All right.

Well, I have to go, so I have the last two picks here. You, you, yeah, you're just, picking the side you won on the last two fights. All right. I'll take Amosoff, even though I don't love it. And I'm just going to go with my boy.

Even though I don't particularly love the matchup for him, I got to go with WCA, even though he's the dog. I think Volkov probably stylistically is the better pick. But WCA is cooking with gas right now. There's a lot of good vibes in his direction right now. And, you know,

I need him to win big. The fantasy squad, I'm just getting run over by people not fighting and getting a bunch of zeros on the cards by taking some risks. Waldo got me to the dance last season. He was my MVP. So we got to go with Waldo. So you have one of my boys and I have the other. I would have actually taken Waldo if I were picking this fight. So I,

very competitive. Like I said, I think there were three. Everybody in their mom would take King Green, Hamzaa, Chmive, and a table of Oetia. And then after that, it's like, I feel pretty good about Buck or about Brady, though I can see how Buckley wins, but I do feel, I at least feel some level of like, yeah, I want to have Sean Brady the rest of it. I'm not upset getting either side of it. Yeah. I mean, it's funny when you, it's fun when you like talk to both fighters,

Buckley and Brady and kind of get like where they're both coming from. Like Brady's just, Brady's just like, I got to win. Like I just got to go out there. He really does. I understand the UFC 322 stuff. Like, I don't know if he would be. be Michael Morales on his best day, the way Michael looked in that fight, but not finding,

like literally not finding out your fighting until two hours before the fight, that'll mess with you a little bit. That'll, that'll, that'll, that'll, that'll clobber your brain a little bit. That's pretty insane that that happened to him, uh, because New York being New York. But, uh, and then Buckley just, you know, he's saying what he's saying, like, oh, I haven't even tried to wrestle and, in all that stuff. and he's obviously wrestled. He's out for almost a year.

And he got tackled the whole bunch by Kamara Usman, which is why he lost that fight. So yeah, I don't think he's, I think Buckley realizes if he's going to make a run, this is it. Like he's got to go now. He can't really afford any losses.

So it's perfect matchmaking. They're both just right there of like, yep, this is now or never. And so it's a great fight. It's a really, I think it's a very good match. The whole card

Just spectacular And that's why That's why it's got the three stars Obviously We'll talk more about UFC 328 tomorrow We'll have the preview show Of course the way in the stream

Going down tomorrow morning AK We'll be back with Jose As you watch the fighters Step on to the scales And prepare for battle at UFC 328 But like I said presser today

And we'll have the White House Press conference tomorrow Before Ceremony Wayans We'll have Ceremony Awayans Tomorrow's gonna be a nightmare And then, of course, Saturday, People's Pre-Fight Show, 4.15 p.m. Eastern Time, I believe. Whatever time the event starts, People's Pre-Fight show will be 45 minutes before. Watch party going down for the final seven fights. And then Jed and I will react to the craziness that will unfold. Who will the victory horn sound for? Will they sound for Hamzaa Shamaif? Will they sound for... Hopefully, Hamsat Shamaev, the Tebukotiae and Assangor Sarkai. Okay.

Jimmy Suss. Those are my, that's my climb this week. It's a, a triple parlay line? It's technically a two-legger because the table is such a big favorite. And so it's by Sanger that I have to parlay the two of them to get to one leg. Wow. Three fights for a two-leg climb. Yes.

I know Casey, our good friend Casey Leiden, hates to see Ozzie Diaz is such a big underdog. But who knows? Maybe I'll make a couple bucks. That's his guy. I hope not. That would devastate my climb and my draft. Yes, it would devastate a lot. My fantasy team would be in shambles, like complete other shambles.

Also, it would devastate your fantasy team. Not that any of it matters. A.K. is just dog walking. Yeah. What a draft for. Josh Hoke is going to score 700 points, which is obscene. Absolutely insane. All right.

Preview show tomorrow. We'll see you then. Thanks for watching. Shots. Chad Bronsie. joining the program for Jedi and Mike Hack. Good at everybody. Love y'all.

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