MMA Fighting - BTL | Latest On Conor McGregor, UFC Agrees To Settle Lawsuits, Aldo Back At UFC 301, Francis Ngannou

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

Conor McGregor says it's all systems go for his return to the UFC's octagon this summer, although the particulars have not been revealed. Should fans of the sport be excited about the UFC's biggest star's latest update, or will it be a let down in the end? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to McGregor's recent interview on The MMA Hour and the expectation's for his return. Additionally, they discuss the UFC agreeing to settle the antitrust lawsuits, the two big fights set for UFC 301, including Alexandre Pantoja vs. Steve Erceg for the flyweight title and the return of Jose Aldo against Jonathan Martinez, Donn Davis' interview on Wednesday revealing that Francis Ngannou will make his #PFL debut "no later" than September on pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia, Ngannou saying he may want to return to boxing for his next fight, Saturday's UFC Vegas 89 event headlined by Rose Namajunas vs. Amanda Ribas and the return of Bellator on Friday, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti and Jed Meshew. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. The MA 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. It's another Thursday, another show where there's so much to talk about. And as always, we bring you the best panel in the MMA space each and every week. This week, no different. As we introduce first, Mr. No Gray Area, Mr. Hot Take, the cannibal kid himself. And in the fight poster of life, he is Mr. UFC 300. Let us say hello to Jenbushu. Hello, sir. How are you? So we're clear. That's an insult. It's the worst fight I'm also in the middle of dying laughing.

The esteemed Connor Burks has dropped a fight feast that I just saw on my Twitter in honor of Roadhouse the film. And he went to Texas Roadhouse. And God, I can't wait to watch that. I'm very excited for this. Shout out to G.C. And back this week with internet issues, a thing of the past, the wise wordsmiths, my bald brother,

the deputy editor for M.AFighting.com, Mr. Shotal Shottie, good to have you back, my man. What's up, fellas? What's up? Internet's working this week. I'm always happy to be here. Always happy to compete against Jed. I feel like I'm coming into animate territory

every time I come onto the show. But then, you know, you're calling him the most generic low effort version of himself with this 300 poster comparison. So I'm kind of here for it. I just try to pop Jen on every introduction of my idea. Here's why that posters, I mean, outside of all the reasons,

It's not even like AI generated bad. AI would do something more. It would be like hokeyer and worse somehow, but it's so bad. And for that to drop on the same day as we get the announcement of the settlement, I felt like there was connected somehow. It felt like something more was being said by the MMA gods.

It's genuinely just somebody using like the highlight. function on one of these programs in writing the word 300. That's it. Like that is the exact image that we're looking at. Like somebody got paid for that. That's crazy. Barely. They barely got paid because that's why.

Why spend money when you, every dollar you spend on promotion chain, that's one less dollar going to Dana White and friends. You know, you got to think this through. But isn't that poster just the perfect representation. of where we're at with the UFC right now, where there's no stars, the fighters aren't the draw, it's the three letters,

it's the 300 number. To me, this perfectly encapsulates what the UFC is right now. Like, this isn't 100,200 where the stars brought everybody to the dance. The company knows that they're the ones bringing everybody to the dance. They know it's that round number that's bringing everybody to the dance. And this poster, as horrendous as it is.

And I'm not defending the poster. This isn't going to cost the UFC. There's not one person to start that poster. It's like, you know what? F those guys. I'm not giving them my $80. I'm skipping UFC 300 because that poster sucks. Not one pay-per-view buy was lost.

Not one ticket will be refunded. It's just, it's what they are right now. Like, I'm not surprised by this poster at all. But none were gained either, Mike. Nobody saw that one was like, hell yeah. This is a thing I need to see. You know what happened when they dropped that promo? People were like, oh, this is sick.

Now, if there was somebody on the fence, if there's a super casual and that promo hits them, they're just like, you know what? I'm hyped. I'm ready to go. That's what the purpose of trailers and promotional items is for. It's so if you're walking down the street and you see a movie poster, you're like, oh, Madam Webb looks like, shit.

I'm not going to go see that. But John Wick, that poster looks awesome. I'm for sure going to drop 20 on that. You're right, it's not, no one is going to not watch because of this, but it is just, they're not going to get an extra person because of this, which is the entire point of promotion. No, see, here's the thing. The video promo was for the super casual fan.

The fight poster was for us, who they already have. They're not doing this for the super casual fan. Do you think the super casual, think if I go to Publix right now and ask 10 people who watches the UFC if they saw the UFC, if they saw the UFC 300 fight poster, they're not even know what the hell I'm talking about,

but they're probably still going to watch UFC 300. The flag was for us assholes who watch every single Saturday and pay $80 every single Saturday. That was for us, because they know they have us. They could put on anything they want,

and we're still going to watch. See, I have, I almost, I feel like I almost sag on this because like I, there's no way that's it, right? Like, there's no way that that's the real poster. Like, I refuse to believe that that's the real poster. Like, especially the amount of work that was put into this card. Like, it's very clear that they had an edict from the beginning of like,

this card has to be incredible. Like, out top to bottom, you have to have great betcha. Like, they worked so hard to put this together. I can't imagine that that's the actual official one. Like, the fact that we're even talking about it speaks volumes, right? Because how many fight poster conversations? Exactly. Exactly.

It would be kind of hilarious that that is the actual post. I feel like we do talk about fight posters when they're dope. and it's like, oh, check out this rise in fight poster. Ariel in the MMA hour is like, what's the best fight poster of the year and stuff? Fight Circus, their event coming up in like a couple of days, but I think it airs next week. Their fight posters is awesome. It's just like, I get it. If you don't want to care about stuff, that's fine.

But the amount of people are like 300 is going to be great who cares about a poster. I do because it's the fucking principle of the thing, guys. Like, just try a little, ostensibly it is your job. There is a person, probably multiple people in an art department who are paid real dollars, pesos or whatever their currency unit is to do something. And this is the most half-ass thing I've ever seen. Props to you, my brother in Christ, whoever did this, and is still picking up. But they're like, that is some shit that should get.

get you fired. If you turn that into a superior and be like, this is the poster, they should be like, and here's your two weeks. Get, can step it. It is so bad. Just try. Care. No, see, we're thinking of this the wrong way.

This is all big brain, man. This is all big brain strategy. They want us to be, to lower the expectations and crap on this. So that when the actual poster is released, it's like, oh, look. I knew that wasn't the real poster. Look at that. Look at the great poster. This is so much better.

It's more setting up low so that You do not get credit for being a hero. You don't be like, oh look, I save this person's life. If you're the one who shot him, that's not how it works. But you do get credit. You can't create the problem and then be the savior. That's not true, though, because you can

if a portion of the people don't know that you created the problem. Oh. Oh, look, guys. I'm five minutes in and I'm already mad. I know. We didn't even get to an official topic. And we're going to wait until we get into the first topic. I think it's time we break a little bit of news here. I think we should break some news after the poster talk in regards to UFC 300 and the bill to UFC 300.

So as you heard yesterday on the MMA hour, the crew will be heading to Las Vegas for some bonus shows during UFC 300 fight week, Thursday and Friday heading into that card. And then we'll also be doing the watch party in Vegas, April 13th. We'll be doing the entire card from Fight 1 all the way through Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill, neither of which were on the poster. But that's going to be fun as hell. In addition, we're going to have a whole bunch of fun content coming your way to get you ready for UFC 300, including a pair of rewatch parties on this here YouTube channel. Yes, this Tuesday, March 26th, 8 p.m. Eastern time, you can join us.

as we rewatch the main card of UFC 100, headlined by Brock Lesnar versus Frank Mier for the UFC heavyweight title, George St. Pierre and the co-made event, defending the Walterweight title against Tiago Alvis, Dan Henderson versus Michael Bisbing, and much more. That is going to be this Tuesday, 8 p.m. Eastern, UFC 100 watch party.

The following Tuesday, April 2nd, again, 8 p.m. Eastern, another rewatch party this time for the UFC 200, main card, which was eventually headlines. Thank you. By Misha Tate versus Amanda Nunes. Brock was on that card as well in one of the most forgettable fights ever against Mark Hunt. Daniel Cormier ends up fighting Anderson Silva. And the cool thing about these watch parties,

not only are we going to be able to go back and rewatch these fights. And even some of these folks watching right now, you'll be watching UFC 100 and 200 for the first time. We'll be joined by a lot of the crew members hopping in and out, but we'll also be joined by some folks who were in attendance. boots on the ground for those events, including our own Sean Al-Shadi, who was at UFC 200 for all the craziness.

So this Tuesday, 8 p.m. Eastern, UFC 100 watch party and Tuesday, April 2nd, 8 p.m. Eastern UFC 200 watch party right here on the MMA fighting YouTube channel. Shaheen. I'm excited to have you for UFC 200, so you can tell us all the tales of one of the most chaotic weeks in the history of MMA. I can't wait.

This is going to be so much fun. come join your pals at MMA fighting every Tuesday the next two Tuesdays we're going to have a blast we are jed which one of you are most excited for yeah i'll say can i can i jump in for the dan henderson michael bisming fight i got a feeling that something fun's going to happen in that one you know i just feel like that fight might be the greatest thing i've ever seen well we'll see if that rings true uh next tuesday apm eastern dan henderson michael bisminging leaning into the two title fights. All right. Let's make this official now. Let's have BTL. We're often running. Let's get into the biggest story of the week, gentlemen. The antitrust lawsuits against the UFC

are not officially over, but they're pretty much over. A settlement agreement was reached for the tune of $335 million from the UFC to the fighters involved in these lawsuits. In the next 40 to 60 days, we'll get the full rundown of what this will all entail, how it's all going to be structured, how the payouts are going to be set, et cetera. But unless something crazy happens, this is not going to go to trial at all. So, Sean, we will begin with you. The news, the announcement, the reveal, all comes out yesterday, pretty much at this exact time 24 hours ago. And then our own Steve Morocco did a great podcast with John Nash discussing what this all means.

We heard from Nate Corey and others about how this all came to be and why. So with all that information you now have, and there's still more to come, what is your reaction 24 hours later to this? So there's a lot of layers to this, right? I think initially I'll just say, first off, go check out the podcast Stephen did with John Nash and go read a couple of the articles. Stephen has done since then. They kind of illuminates a little bit of the context around this because it is such a nuanced subject. And this is something that has just been going on for a decade at this point, right? This story has been alive since 2014. There's a lot of ins and outs. And I think parts to this that most of the laymen will not understand just because the legal system is so inherently. complex and needlessly complex, you'd say. On one hand, all of this is disappointing. And I can understand that disappointment. If you were feeling disappointed yesterday, seeing this, I can understand that, especially that knee-jerk inherent reaction, right? Because we have been told that this is the biggest story of 2024, that this has been something that's ongoing for a decade now. Again, like I said, since 2014, we've been hearing about it for that long. And the whole time,

the lines we're hearing about this story or how this is a fight for actual actual fundamental instructive change in MMA, right? That has been the company line the entire time of how important this is because of how much it could shape and change MMA. It almost began to feel like some sort of evangelical mission to some degree. You hear the lines for 10 years. And then you see the news yesterday. I think it's only natural to feel jilted in some way, to feel let down, to me.

make jokes about only UFC fighters could be underpaid in a situation like this. The UFC wins again, that sort of thing. It almost begins to feel like the Jesse Pinkman meme, right, that they can't just keep getting away with this, that the UFC wins at every turn no matter what happens. And so in that respect, I certainly feel that, empathize with that and relate to that feeling a lot, that feeling of disappointment. But then on the other hand, right, the realistic side to this, you read more about this, you talk to people who have specialized in it for the past decade,

and you realize that we were already so far away from whatever that idealistic version of this playing out was, right? The injunctive belief, I'm sorry, relief between both lawsuits would have had to essentially, you would have had to refile and combine these two lawsuits and start anew and go through the whole process all over again if you were seeking that sort of instructive change. So that would have just been another five, 10-year delay

just to get back to this point that we're at today, day and then, you know, another 10 years of legal fees mounting. And there's no guarantee at any point in that process that any of this would amount to any of anything. So in that respect, I can understand that at a certain point, all these guys are human, man. Like, I can understand being exhausted. I can understand not wanting to wait another 10 years to not wanting to commit two decades of your life to this fight and have potentially nothing to show for it at the end.

I mean, the American legal system is just not inherently. built for people like me or you or Kung Lee or John Fitch or for any of these guys. It is a, it is built for billion dollar corporations like the UFC who can, who can funnel unlimited resources into something like this and just drown it in quicksand and just wade you out. So in that respect, the settlement certainly makes sense. Even the numbers that we ended up with are extraordinarily disappointing if you were, if you had been led astray by the early reports, because years ago we're hearing 860 million. We're hearing a high range of $1.6 billion.

And to come to the number that we were at yesterday of 330, that is just so disappointing. But it is also in line with what we've been hearing for the past few years. And it just feels like that was the best case scenario from where we had gotten. In that respect, you can understand them taking that deal because it is better than nothing. For me, though, I would just say the most frustrating part is I sort of align with. with where Graeme Maynard hit is at and what he's been saying. And that's just, I mourn what we lost by not letting this hit the trial, right?

The dark underbelly of the sport that really no one understands. I just think about how much information we know today because of this trial, right? Because of the discovery, all of the different purse information and costs and revenues and business practices, etc. That we have learned and gleaned from this trial and from the UFC and just from these phases. So much of it, it was new information to us and that there was so much more we could have found out had this actually gone through the paces and through the trial. And that to me is a bummer that we did not get to that point.

Ultimately, though, because I have been going back and forth in my mind about this for the past day or two, this is still a paycheck for the fighters, many of whom will probably need that, right? It is not ideal. It is not ideal in any respect. But there is a reason so many people who specialize in this sort of realm

and this sort of antitrust suits are calling this a win for the plaintiffs and that's because the legal system was never really on their side to begin with. So in that respect, it's tough, man. I wanted to see this go as far as it would go. I wanted to see what would come of it,

but I can understand where they ended up with. It's disappointing, but I can, again, the legal system's just not built for them to win. So I can understand where they ended up with. I'm conflicted, man. I'm really conflicted. Yeah. Like if this is a tapology fight between the fighters in the UFC, the fighters are in green, the UFC's in red.

Like, officially, it's a win for the fighters. And when we go back and look at this, if you, I know your face is saying, Jed, I know you're going to get into it. But they still win. Like in, if this is like an actual result, the fighters win. Now, what that all means, of course. The fighters win, but we also can't be idealistic. We also can't be idealistic with it. of it's easy for me to commit someone

to another 10 years of this type of fight. It's easy for me to say, hey, waste 20 years of your life doing this thing with no guarantee at the end. The only, I think, mistake is like we have just, again, the talking points we've been hearing for a decade is how fundamentally important this is to change the sport. And if that, in that respect, I can understand looking at this settlement and casting a side eye to it

and being like, well, that's not actually what you guys were out for and that's not actually what happened. But again, 10 years is exhausting, man. I can understand at the end of this just wanting to say, I can't do this for another, another whole round of like another decade of this. Yes. Jed, please, go ahead. I think you know what I'm trying to say.

You know how I feel about it. I do. I just disagree. You know what I feel about it. Fair. Okay, go. Look, the fighters won in the same way that Tyson Fury beat Francis and Ghanu. Sure.

He won, right? Does anyone feel coming out of that that he was the winner? No, they lost. And a lot of what I'm about to say is harsh. Totally understand that. If you disagree, I get it. Because I understand where Shaheen is coming from. I understand what he is saying.

The legal system is not built for individuals. It does cater to the mega wealthy and billionaire corporations. Like this was always the outcome that I thought was the most likely from the start of this. But then my thought was, well, we got this damn far. Maybe they actually are. because here's the thing, kids, like, they lost. Yes, they won some money. It is less money than they thought, probably about the correct amount for a situation

like this. But when it all parsed out, like, so they got $330 million, we don't know the exact numbers exactly, like really, but 33% of that's going to go to the attorneys, right? So the attorneys won because the attorneys, however many of them worked on this on that are coming out with $100 million, and that's a substantially smaller group than the 1,200 fighters in the class action. The attorneys, absolutely, terrific day for them. They're all, all the partners are getting bonus checks, and they are all popping the champagne later this week, like for sure. The fighters, 1,200 of them, it appears that that's going to get put out

pro rata, which means like the big stars who fought the most and already generated the most income will get paid the most, and the other dudes will get some money. And that's, That's not nothing. But that wasn't the goal. And that's the whole thing. The goal was not, we want to get fighters 20 more bucks. The goal was we want to fundamentally change the sport. It was framed like that by the people in it.

And for the last 10 years, that is this is going to be the thing. And Nate Corey himself comes out and says, we didn't achieve all we wanted. You know, what we wanted to do is change the sport. Then buddy, you didn't achieve shit. If your goal was this, you failed all the way on that goal. what you did was take a cash buyout and that's fine that is again an understandable outcome because it is hard the prospect of doing this further is hard but i'm just not going to sugarcoat this and say the fighters won they quit fighting they they quit this particular fight for money and that's a

that's their lives they got to make that choice but if your whole point was to change the sport for the better end for always, you're not even close. You didn't even break stride. You didn't even get this settlement like three years ago when it would have actively like hurt the UFC. Now they get $400 million from ESPN every year. This is a nothing to them. The fact that TKO stock price jumped like eight points or whatever within an hour of this tells you who won and lost here. And the losers were the fighters. And the thing that sucks is this was the best hope. This was it because, yes, it would have taken more time to do it. Yes, it would have sucked.

It would have been hard. But no, there is no reinforcement coming down the mountain. Nothing is behind this to help you out. The UFC now has worse contracts than they had a couple of years ago because they went back to the bad ones when this, when they changed off when this all started. Like there are, there is no savior coming for them. These were the guys, both by their own admission and saying, we're the ones who were going to take them. dismantle and fight them and by everyone else and just the facts of the ground. You are the last best hope to do something good here.

And they blinked. And that's just it. There you can couch it. You can understand with context and say, yeah, I'd take the 80 grand. They quit. And it sucks. And I want to be, you know, accommodating. But the longer I've had on this, dude, you already spent 10 years.

I don't know. My pride's worth more than the. to 80 grand you're going to get off of this. If it was a million, okay, my prize's not worth a million dollars for sure. But like you're, you're not going to get as much money to just keep this fight alive, which is where I would have been the whole time. So not everyone's going to agree with me. That's fine.

You don't have to. I think we're all trying to find a way to feel better about this. When, sure, the UFC bled, but the punch didn't knock them down. They didn't fall to it. Like, they're just still cool. This is Xerxes. in 300. This is, this is fucking Thanos, all that for a drop of blood. Like, this was nothing. They lost and we all have to be okay with that. Like, that's just it. Yeah. So, like, my biggest takeaway

is kind of like a combination of what the two of you said. Shaheen, you wanted to see this go the distance because of what this could have meant for the sport. And Jedd, I understood where you're coming from as well. And I had people on heck of a morning and DMing me throughout the day yesterday saying like well this just means like the ufc knows they're wrong and like they just threw in the towel and gave the fighters what they wanted that is unequivocally not true um what i took away the most from this and sheen i'll get your biggest takeaway from all this right after i say this is that the ufc didn't admit guilt they spent three hundred thirty five million dollars to keep their brand fully intact this was a brand deal for them they invested they basically put

$335 million into this whole thing so that none of this shit gets to a courtroom and ends up in the court of public appeal, which could be way more damning at times than the legal system itself. So it costs them $335 million, which is basically like a half year, nine months to profit for them to keep their brand fully intact. That's my biggest takeaway of all this. If you could pinpoint one big takeaway, what is it coming out of this agreed settlement? I know there's still like some some answers we still need to get. But it seems, especially after listening to John Nash talking to Steve Morocco, if there's change to the contracts, it's going to be very minimal,

and it's not going to really make a dent or any bit of a difference to anything. Well, I mean, first off, I would push back at what you had said, just in one respect and that nothing was accomplished. I think that there were small victories along the way, some of the information that was revealed, but also some of the contractual stuff, right? Like the whole Francis Ingano situation with the sunset clause and things like that, like that doesn't happen. if this whole situation isn't playing out.

So in some respect, there was little victories that they were able to achieve along the way. But that being said, I'm not here to tell you that to frame this as some sort of huge victory for the fighters, because it certainly was not. This was the most successful day for the UFC possible yesterday. Like, again, it's the Jesse Pigman meme of how I can't believe they keep getting away with this.

That's very much what we all just lived. All I'm saying is essentially it is not a whiter black issue to me. There's so much nuance in something like this, And it's so easy for us on the sidelines to couch it and say, oh, you guys are quitters. When the actual reality of something like this is so much more complex than just like, oh, they decided to give up the fight. Because ultimately, what will happen, right? Because the pool of fighters who are going to receive this check is getting smaller and smaller than more we hear about it. Between the two different lawsuits, we have essentially found out that the second lawsuit.

So like fighters, whenever that second one starts, I think it's like 2007. 18 range, that there was a clause put into the UFC contract if you signed to the UFC where essentially you were voiding yourself from this antitrust suit. So essentially, like anyone who signed past then, more or less is not included in this. So this is a very particular set of fighters, many of whom are probably not in a great place financially, right? Like many of whom sort of missed the boom period where actual good money was made in this sport.

And so if those guys can randomly get a check for who knows what that, you know, you know, total will actually end up being right and maybe it's a hundred grand maybe it's 200 grand who whatever it it ends up being lawyer fees and all of this like there's still a lot that we have to parse and find out about if those if they if those guys can get a check and that helps their life quality significantly like that is not nothing i'm not going to say that's not nothing that is certainly something and and you know just on a human side like i'm glad that those people will be able to get something from this and i'm glad that all these guys were able to work towards that to get them that uh But yeah, man, I mean, the biggest takeaway is that this is the UFC winning again, right?

Like, this is just what this sport is. This is what this sport will continue to be. And like Jed said, there's no savior coming at this point, right? Like, this was the best chance. And now this is just sort of the system that we're in place. There are going to mean very few checks and balances. The one thing that I think we all need to sort of hold back on and wait to see how it plays out is what the other terms of the settlement are outside of the money, right?

because there is still a possibility that there are certain contractual agreements, languages, clauses that were agreed upon for the UFC, whether it's to make the contracts less restrictive to take out certain aspects of these contracts to change things around. That is still very possibly in the settlement. We don't know yet any of that information. All we've heard is the figure, the number figure. So in that respect, if they are able to get some wins in that realm as well of changing these contracts and making them a little more fighter-friendly or just some certain.

framework around the sport. That is another little victory. And again, that's where I go back to. There's so much, this is not a black and white issue. To couch it as such is, I think, doing a disservice to just like what everybody has sort of gone through over the past 10 years. But make no mistake, unequivocally, this was a win for the UFC. This was basically best case scenario for them.

And it worked out because everything always works out for the UFC. It sure does. Jed, what's your biggest takeaway from all this? and do you have a response to Shaheen's little bit of a pushback? I'll be legitimately astonished if there's anything in the settlement about contractual language in a substantive manner. Because the price that the UFC is paying is so small relative to them that this does not speak like a settlement born of, oh, yeah, we're afraid we're going to lose. This is, oh, this is worth it for us to leave.

And any contractual language would not be worth it to them. Their business is built on being a monopoly. And so they're not going to give up any of that leverage. They're just going to pay them some money. I would legitimately be shocked if there was something substantive. It could happen, I guess. But I would also say that if something like that was coming, all of the comments from Nate Quarry, et cetera, would have been a little happier than the like somber, morose, we failed note.

that is what they all were. My biggest takeaway is that PFL screwed. And that is a bit of a pivot because, like, I mean, the biggest takeaway is, I guess, probably like, oh, UFC keeps winning. But the PFL, to my understanding, and again, this is not insider, this is full outside knowledge, I looked at the PFL's last couple of years, was like they're just lighting money on fire, but they're doing it to a purpose. And that purpose is to gain some piece of the MMA business.

If they can get some percentage of market share and be a realistic, not a co-leader, but just a realistic entity, then that's obviously a huge win. But that's unlikely. So what they can do is stay solvent until the reinforcements come, until there is contractual language changes, until there is a mandate that the UFC not be a monopoly functionally. that's not going to happen and I don't I don't know where PFL goes from here it seems it seems to me that their businesses took a massive body blow and it is just a matter of time now maybe that time's years you know maybe they've got deep pockets and can afford to light money on fire for a while but they're screwed because everyone's screwed because these guys writ they were the last best hope and they knew they were the last best hope and they looked around and said

said, nope, I'm out. And that's not wrong for them personally. But it sucks, man. It yesterday unequivocally sucked for the sport. And that's the biggest takeaway. All right. Any final thoughts on this before we move on to, you know, normal MMA programming, I guess. Because this is obviously a big story.

And again, as Shaheen keeps saying, we, everything is not done yet. but we'll see what kind of additions there are to this settlement and whatnot. I kind of with you, Jed, especially you have to listen to John. I don't expect much more to come from this outside of like a little bit of change that just like looks good, just looking at it. Like if you read it like, oh, that's a win. But in the general sense of like how contracts are structured, doesn't seem like it's going to make a dent to the UFC.

But does anybody want to add anything else to this before we move on? On a happier note, I'm also mad at this because now I have to root for the Ali Act, which I have been steadfastly against because I hate it. But it's the only chance at this point in time. So, yay, Ali Act. I mean, I agree. I agree, but it's the only, it's now the only bullet in the gun because they just, they had a bullet.

They had it loaded and were like, F it. I'll take the bag of grand and go home. So I don't, let's go, let's go lobbying Congress. Woo! That's always successful and certainly expedient. I mean, there's always the outside. Like this lawsuit ending, this antitrust suit ending, does not preclude other antitrust suits from starting.

So like, for example, a rival promotion could try something similar to sue the UFC. Other fighters could try something similar to UFC. So, like, that is certainly still an option. But, yeah, I mean, realistically, this was what it, this was the shot and it's not happening. So, I mean, my ultimate, like, the last takeaway from me is, like, it's so funny to the degree to which you have to learn really bizarre, like, just off-nitch topics when you cover MMA, right? Because, like, for a while, like when I started, you had to really learn all about, like,

testosterone versus epitestosterone ratio and all this different, like, drug testing stuff. And that was a really big deal when Vitor Belfort was kicking people's heads off while law and all this juice. And like, I had to learn all these phrases and terms and nuances that I would have never imagined when I was just a college kid getting my English degree. And now I'm out here having to, like, research law and like basically go to law school to figure out all this stuff. In MMA, you just got us.

It's just, you never know what's coming next. Your area of specialty is just, it seems to increase and increase the longer you do this because this sport is so genuinely dumb and just weird. Nothing would make me happier than for the PFL to bring them a matter. monopoly suit against the UFC and have Don Davis to explain why they're the co-leader, but the UFC's a monopoly. Oh, my God. You get thrown out on day one.

Sir, your C or whatever Davis's role is, I don't remember, repeatedly said that they're the co-leader and that this was good for the sport. Now you're telling me that that's not true. The fuck out of my courtroom. Oh, my God. Don't you worry, my friends. We will talk about what Don some of the things Don Davis had to say

on the MMA hour yesterday, but let's move on because it appears, at least if you believe him, the biggest star in the sport might be coming back soon. The point for round one goes to Sean Lshaddy, one and nothing.

Can't handle the truth. I didn't even know who I wanted to give that point to it. It's like an unfair point to give because you're both right, but I don't know. Sean injected like just, enough positivity and I don't know. Why are we?

I don't even know why. I wish I could take back the point, but it's our referee's decision is fine. Now my kick. On our words. All right. Bang the gable. Look. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them.

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All you need is Betterment. Go to Betterment.com to learn more. That's B-E-T-E-R-M-E-N-T-com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Connor McGregor back in the news, gentlemen, goes on the MMA hour, does this 30 minute or so interview with Ariel Hawani. It's great stuff. And he says, essentially, the Mac is back this summer. He didn't reveal the date, the card.

He'll say he basically ended with, I'll let the UFC announce that, which I thought was hilarious. And I wasn't surprised in the slightest. But it seems like the biggest star in the sport, at least according to what he had to say yesterday, going to be fighting this summer. he's been tied to June 29th, UFC 303, International Fight Weeks. So, Jed, you seem like the kind of guy who just takes a man at their word 99.9% of the time, right? Do you believe, Carter McGregor?

Did you come out of that interview with Ari Hohanian thinking, you know what? I might have to book my tickets to Vegas because this dude's fighting June 29th or shortly thereafter. Oh, I certainly didn't come out of feeling that because I don't know. I mean, I'd go watch Connor fight if it was around, but he's not, he's certainly passed his prime at this point, and I hate Michael Chandler.

So if this is to come to pass, none of this is for me. Thank you very much. I will say that I have been operating under the assumption that Connor McGregor was done fighting. It's been a good assumption for the last two and a half years or however long. It's been this at least like the first. with which he is saying it makes me feel at least a little bit less sure of that. But this is a trust-baw-verify situation.

I will not believe it until the same as I once did with Nick Diaz all those years ago. I will believe it the day after it happens and I can confirm that I saw it and that I did not hallucinate it happening because it's just better that way. You know, I'll be wrong a lot less if that's the way I'd move forward. If the contract gets signed, it probably will happen. Connor has never really been a dude to pull out of fights, even if injured or whatever. But there's a whole universe of difference between Connor saying something and it happening. And that's the universe that we've lived in for the last year, right?

Connor has repeatedly said, I'm coming back at this time. I'm coming back in December. I'm coming back in January. I'm coming back in a international fight week. And Dana White has steadfastly said, that's not happening. Yeah, no. Maybe in the fall. Like that hopefully in the fall, but Connor might not ever fight.

And you can ask a lot of great questions about why Dana would not be interested in his biggest star coming back to fight. And those answers take you really down one particular road. But as we learned yesterday, the UFC's running the show, man. So it doesn't matter if Connor says what he wants to do all the time. In the end of the day, the UFC is going to have to agree to do these things. and for now they have not been willing to do so. Maybe that changes. Hopefully it does.

No reason not to. But I'll believe it when I see it. John, did you, I'm not sure how you felt about the Connor return stuff, but did you come out of that interview feeling better about things? That this summer, when the weather gets warmer and hopefully the pollen goes away, Connor McGregor will make that walk to the octagon. Fans erupting, press conferences. weigh-ins, the Connor show is back. Did you feel better about things? I don't know about better, right?

Because I do think just two years of watching Michael Chandler flail in the wind and waste the prime of his career has been very interesting to watch, if nothing else. And it was getting to a really weird point where like, how long are you going to let this happen? So like watching that was very voyeuristic. And like, I'm just watching, I'm at the zoo and I'm watching the lions through the cage bars.

So like if this is the end of that, that's, you know, that's certainly something. This to me felt like the most. real version of this that we have certainly had thus far, right? Like this is this like the way Connor was speaking about it yesterday and how genuine it seemed and how excited he seemed was miles away from him just on New Year's Eve like probably drunk drinking some wine cackling saying we're going to fight at middleweight or whatever that was. So like this felt more real, certainly in that sense. I don't know that I believe it until we get to fight week just because

of exactly what Jed said. Like we have been led astray so many different times. I'm not going to be the guy who fool me once twice, three times, and then at a certain point, I'm just an idiot. But this does feel real in that respect. And I found that interview really, really intriguing and just in the way that Connor was talking about his contract, right? We've already spent this whole show talking about UFC contracts to a certain degree. And it's been sort of the unspoken aspect to all of this,

or at least maybe the underspoken about aspect to all of this, the fact that Connor McGregor has two years left or two fights left on his deal and whatever this Chandler fight would essentially put him at one fight left on his deal. And the biggest star in the history of MMA getting to one fight left on his deal is a seismic deal, whether we like him or not, whether he's in title conversation or not, whether he's really relevant to the sport at this point from a meritocracy standpoint or not. Like him being a free agent would be a massive deal. And him talking about, well, Lorenzo Fertita would never have let it get this far.

Lorenzo Fertita would have locked me up for eight more fights a year ago, two years ago, that sort of thing. And him almost just being, I don't know, perplexed is the word, or confused, or disappointed, or frustrated,

or maybe a combination of. I'm really intrigued to see how this plays out. And if this is, if this Chandler fight does end up happening in June, and then Connor is now on a one-fight deal, A, what is that going to look like for him? Is the UFC going to drag their feet

like they did with Nate Diaz? B, is Connor McGregor not going to want to resign because this has been the ultimate company man for the most part, someone who will always speak highly of the OFC, someone who will always sing their praises and say, I want to be a lifer here. But I would assume he does see what is going on with Francis, what is going on when Nadeez, Jorge Mazvedal, all these guys who are doing bigger things outside and sort of putting their own promotional brands out there and then collecting the lion's share of

all these revenues. I mean, Connor McGregor is the most highly paid athlete in the history of the UFC, and he's also the most underpaid athlete in the history of the UFC, right? Like, he knows that. That man knows that better than anybody. So I tentatively believe that this will happen. And I'm extremely interested to see contractually what this means moving forward and how this all plays out.

But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I would bet my life on it happening in June because we've already seen this happen before where Connor announces something and the Dana White just next time we see him, we'll be like, no, what are you talking about? Connor's too rich. She's not going to fight. So we'll see. Yeah. I'm glad you brought up the second piece of this because

Connor said a lot of interesting things and not only did he say he was going to fight this summer he also says if it's up to me I'm fighting twice this year which would unless he does re-sign a new deal with the UFC that ends the contract and he goes into free agency so Shaheen won to 10 me chances we see Connor McGregor

fight twice in 2024 two I don't believe that I just don't believe that I mean Dana he already Dana White has already thrown cold water completely over the sphere idea. Why I, who has no idea, or why I should say, I have no idea unless it is the contract situation. I just don't. I mean, when's the last time we saw Connor fight twice in a year? It's been a long time. I just don't believe it. This is a man

who has only fought a few times since he beat Eddie Alvarez, and that was in 2000, what, 16, 17? Like, when we get a two a year of Connor, then I will believe it. But until then, I'm just not going to hear. Jedd, are you lower than a two, higher than a two? Are you at a number that is just a big circle? Where are we at here? The smallest number possible above a zero. So like it's the limit does not exist.

You just do the little math curve and it never quite gets to zero at the infinite end of that, just above that. Just just the smallest. fraction of a possibility of it happening. So if some miracle occurs, I don't look like a total asshole. It's more likely that he doesn't fight this year than it is that he fights twice this year. I don't know how more simply to put it is, dude, he might want to fight twice this year today

or yesterday or Tuesday, whenever the interview actually took place. And then tomorrow you might wake up and be like, I don't want to do that. I'd rather go have fun with the family. I got four kids. And then the day after we're like, oh, I really want to fight Michael Chandler. Like, it's, he is not, I do not agree with Dana White largely on the,

like, oh, yes, somebody didn't have a fight if he wants to. I do believe in the aggregate of him fighting twice is a lot of, there's a lot of wiggle room for other things to, to take his interest. To me, the reason he would like to fight twice, he'd like to fight out his contract. He would like to enter free agency. and see what lays for him there.

I know he has said that he would like to resign with the UFC, assuming that that could work. And maybe that's true. He certainly would not make the most money by resigning with the UFC. And I think if Connor has proven anything in this life, it is that he is not an idiot when it comes to business. So I think he wants to fight twice so he can be done with the UFC. And then maybe he can sign a one-fight contract with the UFC to do something special.

Or he can say, screw it. Me and Nate will settle up our third fight outside where we get all the money. I can go fight Jake Paul. I can do all these other things. I just don't think that that's we, Dana White is pretty transparently not booking him to fight now because he doesn't want him to get to one fight left on the contract. You're telling me he's going to come off that and then be like, yeah, just finish out your contract, Connor. Totally okay for you to be done with us and then in her free agency.

Not a chance in your life. Not happening. Just not happening. Okay, so we have to play a fun hypothetical game. That probably won't happen, but we just have to play it because I think it'll be a fun little exercise and at least attempt to be positive. So, Jed, let's just say the UFC,

let's say Dana White just comes out right now and does some interview with some social media influencer. And it's just like, you know what? We love Connor. He's a great partner for us, great business, all of that. If Connor thinks the grass is greener elsewhere, we're just going to let him fight those two fights, and we'll see because the UFC has obviously proven

that if Connor leaves like it'll sting but they ain't going to hurt him all that much they have been just fine without him. They're bigger than ever. They're bigger than ever without him right now. So let's just say Dana says okay this is what we're going to do Connor can fight his last two fights.

He can do them both this year and then he can go and see and then we'll try to re-sign him but he can go elsewhere. If this happens, which it probably isn't, but let's just say it does. Positive outlook. If you had to predict opponents, who does he fight in the second fight? Justin Gachie. I don't know that this is true or not, but I want it to be true.

And we're being positive, Mike. That's what you said. Now it's time for positive, Jed. I'm going to speak and do existence the fight that I've wanted the most in all of MMA for the last seven years. And it's Connor McGregor versus Justin Gage. So he goes, win or lose against Michael Chandler, who really cares? he could win. He could also lose.

It's hard to know. But either way, Gachie goes, hopefully, knock on wood, beats Max. Not at all confidence that's going to happen, by the way. Gets to lose to Islam. Now he's done, but he's still the BMF champion. That's great. They can do Connor versus Gachi for the BMF belt in November at Madison Square Garden. The site of Connor's greatest victory.

And then he can just get done out by Justin Gachie. and it would kick all the ass. So that's what we're saying. We're putting it into the universe. John, who's fight number two? We assume it's got to be Michael Chandler because it'd just be, it'd just be rough. That would be hilarious if it was.

Oh, my God. Who's fights? I'll never say a bad thing about Dana White again. It would be so funny. That's just objectively not true also. I would say facts. Whether you interpret those facts is bad. be up to you.

Jed was so close. He was so close to get there and he almost got there. I like his world better than the one I'm going to say. Because ultimately, I mean, Connor versus Justin has always been one of those fights that's just very appealing stylistically, right? Like, that would be a banger. It's a different lightweight who's going to lose to Islam Makachev. It's Dustin Porriate, right? If this happens, that would be the one that makes the most sense.

Dustin goes in, probably lose it to Islam, and then they fight at the end of the year, whether Connor wins or not. And that's just sort of, it feels like Connor wants some sort of resolution to that, even though we saw them fight and got resolution to it. And so he's just going to keep doing it until he eventually wins one or just can't keep doing it anymore. So I could see that. I could see that Dustin sort of being the other, he's the only other guy in that sort of realm, who's that type of B-side who would bring some actual star power to it because I don't think Justin, I don't think Carter sees Justin in that same way.

And also Justin at that point might be tied up with the lightweight title. and I think if you gave Justin the chance of, hey, you either fight for this belt or you fight Connor. I think at this point in his career, he would probably fight for the belt. So I'm going to say Dustin, but ultimately it doesn't matter

because none of this is going to happen. Fair. All right. Let's move on to something that may or may not happen as well, but not in the UFC, but it does factor in a former UFC champion. The point for round two goes to Mr. Positivety himself, Jedmishu.

I mean, look at this guy. It's the best outcome, God. That's what we should all be hoping for. Oh, man. All right. Let's talk about Francis and Ghanu because he broke his silence after his loss to Anthony Joshua, peered on the MMA hour with Ari Hawani.

As we all know, he gets brutally knocked out by Anthony Joshua. And Ariel essentially asks Francis what he wants to do next. If we're up to him, is he boxing? Is he doing MMA? Where does Francis and Gano go from that loss to Anthony Joshua? And Francis said this, the way that this fight happened, it's not the way it was supposed to or should have. So I think now I need to do boxing to claim something, to claim my respect, to claim my dignity, to claim everything. Now, Shaheen, he is obviously leaving the MMA option there because if timing works out, Jed's got his sense in his face.

If it has to be MMA, then fine. He'll have to do MMA first and then he'll go to boxing. but it seems like if Francis had to choose, he's choosing boxing. Your thoughts on this, were you surprised this was his answer, Shaheev? Am I surprised? No. That being said, I mean, man, this fight didn't happen the way it should have. I would very much disagree with you on that. I think that you go in there as a neophyte boxer who is fighting an Olympic gold medalist boxer,

someone who is a great heavyweight champion or has been a great heavyweight champion, someone who has made their entire life's work boxing, that's probably what you're going to look like against that person. So I would argue that this fight actually very much went the way that it was supposed to. I can understand where Francis is coming from, certainly, right? Like you go into this Tyson Fury fight, everyone's counting you out. You pretty much win. Like I had him winning that fight.

I think a lot of people had him winning that fight. Regardless, he outperform expectations by a large margin. All of a sudden, it looks like Francis is this incredible, top 10 heavyweight boxer and then you go in this one and you don't even really show up right like Francis said it himself he felt he was sleep walking in there and end up getting knocked out in the second round like I can I can feel that leaving a bitter taste in your mouth and also you get a little taste of these boxing paydays where back to back you're making what eight figures I can imagine hey yeah I want another bite at this apple that's not what we should be doing though I mean ultimately

I'm not I have so much respect for Francis I have that man is incredible and what he's been able to accomplish is incredible. I'm not going to tell him what to do, but to me, it feels very obvious that MMA needs to be the next step, right? Like, MMA, if only to reclaim some level of yourself in who you are, right? Because I think at this point, the way people look at it at Francis, it would be very different than if he returns to the PFL and knocks out Hanan Ferreira in 10 seconds or whatever Francis could do in that fight. Like, that's, whatever, I'm not discounting Ferreira. That's a very dangerous fight for Francis. But ultimately, if Francis comes back to MMA and does Francis things in MMA again, I think then you can begin to speak about boxing again. You have

picked up some level of a bounce back and just the way people see you. We have such short-term memories. It's, oh yeah, Francis is awesome knockout artists. Let's go maybe fight Deonté Wilder or whoever else Zhang or whoever else you want to throw out there in boxing. It feels like MMA has to be the move, but I can understand Francis not wanting it to be the move. But right now that's sort of it feels like all roads are leading to that. Because what boxing fight is, for instance, is going to get right now, right? Like what big name boxer is going to want to fight him after the result he just had?

We need some sort of in between there. We need the sandwich meat filler before we get to the other side. Chad, why did you bury your face into your hands hearing that quote? Because it's awful? I don't know. Did you not hear the quote?

Is that not everyone's reaction to that quote? Sheen is correct. The thing that is supposed to happen to happen. This is the hard part of fighting. the delusion of fighters, the idea that their timelines exist in their head and is accurate. And how the world unfolds is independent of what sure or shouldn't happen. And to Francine got his credit, as she pointed out, like he has been right a lot of the time where others have said he is wrong.

But when you are faced with overwhelming thunderous concussion delivering evidence that you are wrong to then wake up, sit up, stand up, and say, nah, lucky punch, which isn't exactly what he's saying, but it's kind of what he's saying, right? He was very clear to give Anthony Joshua credit, but the answer at a baseline level is the fight would not have gone that way. Maybe I still would have lost. The fight would not have gone that way if I wasn't in a fog or a day's. And perhaps that is true. Probably not, though. Like, it would have gone substantively similar because I have eyeballs and I watch the fight.

And I don't, you know, Francis didn't look too dissimilar to how he normally looks. He was just boxing a dude who's real good at boxing and took him very seriously as opposed to the last dude. And also stylistically is a worst match of form, et cetera, et cetera. To come out of that fight and whether this is just a thing he is saying, because the money is better in boxing, but he doesn't want to come out and say that transparently and kind of crater his PFL relationship. Maybe that's the case.

But whether it's that or not, whether it is him just saying, no, like boxing owes me something. Boxing doesn't know you shit. Because boxing doesn't know anybody's shit, right? You get what you can kill in there. And to your credit, you got more than most expected. But this is going, like you're the same shit's going to happen if you do this again.

Like it's just, this is just the reality of the world. And I had hoped that he would take a lesson and be like, hey, I tried, I thought, I failed. I can still come back and do this, but I'm going to take some time and maybe I'll go back to my bread and butter to remember what it is to win, to show people, hey, here I am, this is who I am, here's why you care. And that does not appear to at all be the lesson learned here. And so I think instead he may get a payday. I don't know from whence it will come. Like I don't know who will offer him the money to box again as an O and two boxer coming off the knockout of the year loss.

But someone probably will. And he's probably got the exact same thing done to him again. And then now we're in this very sad room instead of the grand room of here's Francis and Ghanu world at his feet, which we were in just a few months ago. Now, Jed, the beauty of this sport and reporting and all this is that there's two sides to every story. And you heard Francis's side and what he wants for his future. And then yesterday, the funniest man in MMA struck again. Don Davis, the co-founder of the Professional Fighters League, returns to the MMA hour.

And boy, was he everything we hoped for. Even starting with his reaction to the UFC lawsuit story. And he essentially said, hey, I've been telling everybody. it's the best time to be a free agent. We're equal to the UFC with pay and distribution and eyeballs and all of that. I popped. I laughed. I had tears in my eyes.

Not revenue. Two and a half minutes. No, they ain't. Two and a half minutes into this. But he also reacted to the Inganu loss to Anthony Joshua because Ariel had essentially said, look, I think the biggest winner in this whole situation is the PFL, because now Francis can come back sooner. And Don basically agreed with that and said,

Francis will be coming back to MMA this year. He's going to headline a pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia against Hedon-Ferrera, which in Don Davis's eyes is the biggest fight in heavyweight MMA this year. And it will happen no later than September. Now, Jed, I'll start with you here. With Don's near-perfect resume and history of announcing things that didn't or still haven't happened yet, and it's been a lot over the last year. or so. Do you believe him, Jed? What are the chances Francis and Ganu fights for the

PFL and an MMA fight before September? That's six months away. Time out. I'm going to circle back to that in a moment because somebody commented something that reminded me. And also Francis was like, oh, yeah, switching to South Pole was not a mistake. It was going great in camp. Buddy, there's empirical evidence that it was a bad choice. instantaneously you got lit the fuck up when you switched to Southpaw. I don't care what happened in camp. I care what happened when you actually fought Anthony Josh. So tough, tough scenes.

I don't feel like he's taking the right messages away, it was the point. As far as Donnie D. God love him. Just one of the best figures in MMA. I hope he's right. And I would say that it's not ridiculous, right? Maybe putting a September timeline is like, ambitious. But again, I think in any logical sane world, Francis would be fighting in PFL, right?

Like that would be his next step. He just got lit up. He is 0-and-2 in boxing. He shouldn't go fight Deonté Wilder or Zhang or anything like that. Like he should go back to his roots and then can return to boxing later. And again, there's even a dude who I'm interested in watching him fight. Do I think it's the greatest heavyweight fight ever? No, it might actually be the biggest though because Francis is Francis and Hanofahed is an interesting opponent if only in that he is a large man and it's funny to watch large men fall over and so one way or the other a large man will fall over in that fight so that would be compelling so I think in a logical world yes I am really not sure that Francis is operating with full logic right now it feels like his pride has been wounded

by, you know, it feels weird to say this, right? But like maybe he was getting a little too high on his own press clippings. Oh, I prove the world about Tyson Fury. And now he feels that that's the truth, whereas it's more likely that the truth is Fury underestimated him, right? And so I wouldn't have guaranteed that, I guess is the point I make if I was Don Davis. But I hope that Don Davis is correct, even if I think probably he's. isn't. Sean, do you believe Don Davis? I mean, I think we all want to believe everything Don

Davis says, because if we believed everything Don Davis says, we are living in a world of perfect harmony where there's co-leaders, the UFC and PFL, they're right next to each other, just battling for supremacy, like the Monday Night Wars and the mid to late 1990s, it would just be the best. But unfortunately, we don't live in that world, even if Don wants us to live there. Do you believe him here that by September of this year, for anything? in Ghana will have stepped into a PFL gauge, not for a photo op, but to actually compete in a mixed martial arts boat. I just have to say the comments are killing me right now. Watching people slowly learn what the UFC Apex FART system is is going to be one of my great joys of the next few months because this is just the comments are cracking me up right now.

We did great work there, Jed. That was the team effort. We sold our best effort. It's doing our best effort. It's maybe our best idea we've ever had. Do I believe Don Davis? I want to believe Don Davis. He's such a nice man.

He's such a funny man. I want to believe what he's saying. Ultimately, I don't know that he dictates Francis in that way. It feels like Francis and him are not aligned on that messaging, which is interesting to me considering, I guess, the relationship that Don has painted that the PFL has with Francis, it would feel like him and Francis would have had that conversation. and sort of plotted this out forward before both of them individually go on in interviews

and say completely contrasting things. But yes, I think that ultimately sanity will prevail, and we will see Francis fight an MMA in the PFL this year. Because the question I keep defaulting back to is just what's the alternative, right? Like, who is he boxing? Who is out there that is a genuine heavyweight star name top 10 figure who is trying to box Francis and Ghanu? right now. And who's going to make him a lot of money doing that, right? Like, I don't think

the wilder thing could happen right now. I don't feel like Deonte would have very much interest in. I don't even know if Deontze has much interest in competing generally. And outside of that, like, who, I don't know that I'm seeing any of the big heavyweight names jumping and raising their hands saying, hey, let me get fight the dude who just got sparked out by Anthony Joshua in two rounds. It feels like there is a need again, like I said, to sort of revive, not the narrative, but revive sort of the aura around Francis and going to the BFL and fighting, as Jed said, that very large man who, by the way, that's a very cool fight.

Like the first stare down we see between these dudes, it's unfortunate we didn't get it already because I would like to see the photo of it. But the first stare down we see between those dudes and we see Hannon Ferreira towering over Francis, like that's going to be really interesting. And I'm going to be all in on it. And that's going to be one of those fights

that you see two dudes getting off the bus who will both look in spectacular like superheroes. Like you can visualize, lives in your head why this is such an interesting fight and it's one of those that's probably going to last like two minutes at that. So like that fight in and of itself I think can do a lot for Francis and for the PFL. And

I think ultimately we will, everyone will get on the same page and come to agree with that because if the one thing with Francis this whole time was well there's no one really to fight him right? Like the PFL just doesn't have anything for him so go ahead and let him do this. But now it feels like there's something fun and compelling.

And I don't know if like I almost want to just take a deep dive real quick, not a deep but like a quick detour of like Don calling that the most anticipated or exciting heavyweight fight of the year, the best heavyweight fight of the year. Is that off? Is that wrong? I mean, John Jones is turning against anybody who's going to get more buzz than this? No. Well, more buzz is inherent, right?

Because UFC, UFC Paperview will always get more buzz than APFL pay-per-view. So, like, I don't know if we can function on buzz. but just like as hardcore fans, if I could tell you, if I tell you, you get one of those, what are you picking? Because I think ultimately

I'm probably picking John still just because I want to see John at Heavyweight. Why? I just want to see John in heavy. Like I've been waiting my whole life to see John. He's fighting a retired firefighter who gives a shit. We're on the same page. I can go watch him beat some fat dude in training.

It'd be fine. It's the same thing. But I can't go watch that. I have no ability to watch that. I want to see John compete at Heavyweight. That's all. So I would pick John, but I would give it some thought.

I would give it some actual thought. Would this? Ludicrous to give that any sort of substantive backing. To even treat that as a real fight and not the sham that it is, I'm disappointed in you. I would watch heavyweight John Jones fight you before I would, before I would pick the Francis. Be as competitive.

It will be as competitive. I just want to see the man at heavyweight. That's all. But it's an interesting conversation. I can appreciate Don for bringing it into our lives. Big Man Falls. I want to see Big Man Fall. all right now you brought this up real quick before we move on to the final regulation topic

if this card comes to fruition i'll start with you jed they do in gano ferrera they do chris cyborg versus loresa pacheco which by the way chris cyborg already tweeted it probably wasn't her but it's already been tweeted now i'm fighting lea mccourt next let me know when she's ready to fight which i thought was absolutely hilarious like 17 seconds after don davis's interview ended so i'm glad they're on the same page after don was like yeah me and chris are great We're doing great things together. You just watch Cedric Dumbay against the dreaded TBD

that they're going to announce later. Just do 100,000 pay-per-views, Jed. No. It just won't. I'm sorry. You just derail me with the cyborg. Not like... It's so dumb.

Just leave the sport. Go box. That's what you want to do that. Leah McCourt off of one win. She beat. Sarah McMahon, great. Good for her. It's a win.

Come on. I never want to say because it's just not ever true that fighters are ducking other fighters. It's just so rarely true. There have been like two instances that I can think of. I'm like, oh, yeah, a fighter did not want the smoke. Coincidentally, one of them was against Chris Seiborke herself. opting to fight be like no I'm fighting

laya McCourt a fight that no one cares about and is unnecessary when there is a Pacheco out there and not even not even how bad it is to just dismiss that as a fun possible fight but just like no I'm not doing that I'm fighting Liam McCourt

that is getting us dangerously close to the I don't want the smoke territory like what in God's name are you doing with that thing thing like that feels just quit like just leave leave pfl they'll let you leave obviously you guys aren't on good terms for whatever reason so uh i don't know what we was originally supposed to talk about but the the cyborg stuff is maddening to me dude there are two fights in mama two two fights in

mb a that are like actually even decently compelling for cyborg kela which is not possible now and Pacheco. Like, how are we not running all signs towards Pacheco? How does Chris not want a fight that people will care about? I just don't, I don't get it. She's so bad at this. She didn't even run all gears towards Kela. There was a window prior to Kayla bouncing where they just been like, hey, before you leave, Kayla,

look, this is the fight. We're going to do this at the Bellator VPFL thing. UN and Kayla, I assume would have said yes. And I don't, again, I never want to say a fighter. is shook because I just don't ever think that's true. Chris Cyborg's actions for the last like four years have not been the actions of someone wanting all the smoke. I mean, what is the biggest hurdle people have historically

with Chris Cyborg when you rank her among the all-time grades, right? It's level of competition, its strength of schedule. Throughout her career, there were just not many great fighters for her to fight. If she fights Larissa Procheco, like Larissa Pracheco is instantly a top five name on her resume, right? Am I wrong there? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Why would you not want that? How could you not want that? Because Liam McCourt is not in time. Because Liam McCourt. It's just freaking ridiculous. So this doesn't do 100,000 pay reviews? No. No. Not if they're charging 80 bucks or whatever what was that first time. What if it's 50?

Noon as bud. If you give me that it's 30. then i would get that with you okay but 50 no not 100 because they're doing i could see 50 i could see 50 you think they'll do 100 000 with 50 bucks a hundred is such a big i can see 50 000 buys oh okay i meant 50 dollar price 10 yeah no no i was i was i was conflating yeah i could see 50 000 i don't think into 100 100 000 pay-per-view buys is such a large number right now in this day and age in the way that pay-per-views work like that is such a hard clueling the hill to climb when the UFC's asking for 13 paper views a year from all these people. Like, it's just not doable.

Not with a $50 price tag. Corrections, Shaheen. They're asking for 12 because they are not asking you to buy 301. And that's what we call a segue. Thank you. Let's go. Point for round three goes to. Got it.

That was it. Professional. I'm a professional. That was so well done. That was so well done. Just waiting on the drum roll. Yeah, thank you, Jed. I mean, you know how much I love, you know,

segues and trains, you know, moving things around, going from one track to the next seamlessly. It's tremendous. So that leads us to Route 4. And boy, oh, boy. Boarding for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

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And we'll start with you, Sean. We found out that Alexander Pantosia, we expected him to fight at UFC 301, May 4th in Rio. We didn't know who was going to be. We were trying to figure out if Jelton Almeida might find his way into the made event against Tom Aspinall. If he beat Curtis Blades, that didn't happen. All these things needed to have to make 301 somewhat compelling,

you know, Alex Perra, Jamal, being on that car, which would have been fine. Turns out, Pantosha's not fighting Menel Cop. He's not fighting Brandon Royval. He's not fighting Brandon Moreno. He's not fighting Mahama Maha'uhaev. He is fighting Steve Urseg for the UFC Flyway title. This is, the reaction to this Shaheen has been incredible because, and I'll just let you

react to it first, because I just think this is, it's just absolutely hilarious. Pantosia v. Erseg for the Flyway title. Your reaction to this announcement. Oh, boy, Mike, you're setting me up. So as a whole, like on the whole, just as a fight itself, I don't mind the fight. Like, I don't actually, like, I can understand the criticisms because they're very valid, especially if this is the headliner. But, like, just as a flyweight title fight, I actually don't mind it.

I kind of, you know, Steve Ersig's been very interesting so far. And his UFC career, I think he's surprised a lot of people. But also just, like, there wasn't a better option. Like, give me a more compelling option because it could have been Muhammad Mahiab. But I don't think anybody would have been excited for that whatsoever after the last few fights that that guy's had. In particular, the last one, he didn't really do himself any favors with the way that fight went. And then you just look at the rest of flyweight. Like, there's not a real person that you could throw in there that would make a lot of sense.

I wish it was Mano cop because to me, that's the guy I want to see get to this point the whole entire time. But he keeps shooting himself in the foot. And, you know, Brandon Moreno didn't win. Amir Al-Bossey wasn't able to compete. Like, ultimately, I'm not trying to see Brandon Roy Val versus. Pantosia already again. We just saw that a couple of months ago. Steve Versaig was sort of the best case scenario.

And also for the UFC, he's probably the cheapest scenario. So they certainly enjoy that as well. I don't hate that fight. It's just the rest of it, right? Like as a main event, if you're asking everyone watching this to pay $80 for that or $70 for that or whatever these are, that's a tough, tough ask to get to in particular if your co-main event is, I mean, God love them.

Josie Aldo is one of my favorite fighters of all time. He's literally right there. Oh, come on, man. Like, that's the matchup we're getting for the surprise Josaldo return. Like, if that was Jose Aldo versus Dominic Cruz, I would even say throw that in the headliner. I'd be excited enough to be interested in watch it and see it. But I like Jonathan Martinez, it's great.

That's a great fight. But that is such a low-stakes, non-fight to me, just in terms of what it means if we're bringing Jose Aldo out of retirement. None of this makes any sense. It's another example of sort of what the UFC has done with their short-term thinking, with wrapping everything around UFC 200, or I'm sorry, UFC 300 and 299 to a certain degree, right?

Of just like everything has to be on this event and therefore all of these surrounding events around it will suffer. This is exactly that scenario because it should have been Alex Pereira the entire time. It's going to be, we're going to view a new benchmark for lowest pay-per-view buys. Like what is pop-up possible in the ESPN era? And I'm actually interested to see that.

I know we don't really get like pay-per-view numbers at all, but we'll hear enough about it. I am curious, what's like the low? What's the ground? What's the foundation? What's the baseline of sickle, hardcore people in this sport who are going to just buy this stuff every single time because there's not really another option?

That's just what we do. Like, who are the absolute insane people who are going to buy this? I want us to know how many of them still exist in this sport. So if nothing, it's a good case study for that. That's a great question. I think this will still do $150,000. Yeah, which is historically historically like right around that

has been the benchmark, the benchmark sort of like the baseline where even if you get like really, really terrible fight cards, one that always pops to mind was like Amanda Nunes versus Shevchenko two or something like that. And I think the card itself was really, really bad. And like that's sort of the baseline you get, you used to get is like that 150.

I wonder if that still exists. I would guess it's, like right on 100. DJ versus Ali Begatinov did like 115. That feels like that's probably the floor. But it could be lower just because price of the brick going up, you know. It's 80 bucks now to buy pay PPS a lot. So it's going to be light.

I'm of two minds about this fight. One, actually I like the fight. I think the fight's fun. This is the worst fight that the UFC has maybe ever put together. And I mean this in a very specific way because again, I like the fight. I'm just, why have we decided now this instance that like reason

and some level of meritocracy comes into play. The UFC has been lighting meritocracy on fire for the sake of like better, more compelling matchups for the past three years functionally. But for this one, they're like, you're right, you know. Pants has already fought everybody else. Albaozzi's hurt. My old cop blue.

wait, well, this guy makes sense. It's between him and Mikhail and he had a fun, Keogh, let's do it. Why? Screw that. Manel Kopp should have been the answer. I don't care that he missed weight and didn't fight. Just chuck him in there.

Who cares? Is anyone going to be upset by that? No, he'll say something virulent and bad and get the entire Portuguese Brazilian crowd to hate him, and it will be great. Like, it will be compelling, and there will be something here to do that, even though it's a rematch. Again, I just

don't know why this is a time, because here's the part of it that's bad boys and girls here's the bad part there's a really good chance Steve Ursaq wins and that's the worst timeline for the UFC because Hanatoja is not like a huge star right but he's the guy who's been around for a while he is a fun he's a super fun fighter he is Brazilian having a Brazilian champion in the fold is always a benefit for the company like he he has some level of a personality etc they're like him beating Brandon Moreno was obviously not their preferred outcome, but it was a livable outcome. Steve Ursaig has a legitimately decent chance to win this, and you're talking about a dude with three fights in the promotion.

Yes, they've been solid fights or whatever, but he's the number 10 dude in the world. And can you name three facts about him, either of you, men who work in this profession for a living every day, can you tell me three facts about Astro Boy other than his name is Astro Boy? because I just learned one a minute ago. His little name's Vincenzo, which is kind of cool. But like nobody knows shit about him. I like that. It's an awesome.

What can we do with that? Go by Vincenzo and not Steve? Like, I don't trust his judgment. If he has the action to be Vincenzo or Segg and he's going to be Steve. Like, what are we doing here at this point? So he can win this fight. And then you are back to flyweight where they tried, actively tried to kill this weight class for reasons that still.

remain unknown to me. But then it's like, hey, Figgie Smalls is the truth and he's going to save us. Great. And Brandon Moreno, people love the Lego Master. This is great. And like, okay, Alejandra Pantosia is still, what a great story. His post-fight interview after winning was so rich and compelling. Do you see me now, Dad?

Like, it was great. Steve Ursa. And I like Steve Urseg a lot. This is not me shitting on Vincenzo. This is, nobody knows Vincenzo. And he's going to go into Brazil and he might beat your like one of two Brazilian champions on home turf for no game. Like, what are we doing?

This is the worst booking for all of the wrong reasons, but all of the reasons that the UFC has put a primacy on for the last few years. So them doing this instead of the low-hanging fruit of, at least of Muhammad Maheuf wins, he's the third youngest champion in UFC history. He's the first champion born in the 2000s. This is a guy who probably is going to be a future star and a future. staple we can get behind him now they have opted to go with steve urseg i maybe it's just money i truly don't know i wish steve i wish vincenzo all the best in the world and when he wins that'll be

great because he's a good damn fighter and we're going to look a little foolish for not having him higher in our rookie of the year rankings last year but i i just don't know what happened that this is the room we're in you know well first of all let me yeah please please please Let me just say, first of all, if this title by was announced as Vincenzo Erseg versus Al-Anon. I am so much more in. Like, that is so much better to me. Like, I don't know. Like, how have we not?

We, see, this is why we need to be a consult, like consultants in the MMA space, Jed. If we can go to Steve Versaig and say, look, dude, I have an idea of how you can brand yourself. You could instantly improve your platform. People will be more interested in you and you don't have to really do anything. You can continue to be who you are. Let's just work the magic. We, we, this is, this is, we're leaving money on the table, jet. We're leaving money on mustache.

It's so clear to, like. We can't be away these ideas for free. Steve Orsseg is just the most forgettable name of all time. And you couldn't be Vincenzo and no one would forget Vincenzo Orsick. Vincenzo Orseg puts up that KO that he just dropped on, um, Mach Nel. Good. To the moon. To the moon.

To the moon. To the moon. That being said, I will have to push back a little bit on the magical fairy world that Jet is living in where we just insert Manal cop into this situation because there's two reasons you don't do that. Number one is what's the only way this card could get worse? It's if you put someone in the title fight, the lone title fight, who then misses weight because he historically cannot make this weight very well or reliably. And then all of a sudden the one title fight you have on this card is not a title fight at all.

and it's just some dude who was like four pounds over fighting for no actual stakes. That's the only way you can really make this worse. And that is a very like real possibility. Anderson fault, Travis Luter. It was fine. Was it fine? I don't know that it was like, do we are we talking about Anderson's win over Travis Luter ever?

I mean, at the time, I don't know that that's the best out. He was getting worked by Luter. But also the other. I'm sorry. Also, we talk about a lot because he's the Michael Jordan BJJ. The other point of this is Like we're also framing Manil Kopp in a way that I think is not realistic whatsoever

I don't know that a single person outside of the everybody watching this show you me and Mike would care about Manel Kopp any more or less than this like that is that is genuinely the most hardcore of hardcore takes If you go out into the world and you ask a hundred random people hey do you know who Manel Kopp is I bet one does if that if that so like we're talking about Manel Kopp is if he's some flyweight superstar, when really he's just a really crazy individual who all of us enjoy fighting or watching fight, but outside of that,

like no one actually knows. So like, I don't know that that's a better situation, if anything. But he will say some incendiary shit on a microphone that they can put in a promo. What's Steve saying? Can you honestly tell me you know what Steve Ursex voice is?

If I played you three sound clips, could you pick out Steve's voice? Just because he's Australian. That's unfair. It's easy. Well, it was a bad example by you. That's not because that's not my fault. I agree.

If I played you three Australian voices, can you pick Steve's out of them? Listen, here's this. Maybe the game has changed, guys. Maybe Steve changed the way business is done. Because this, this to me is maybe the funniest statistic of all of this. Steve Urseg, after knocking out match now, by the way, did not call for a title fight, didn't even think about a title fight. the title isn't even on his mind called out brandon morano maybe and people thought he was overshooting there

didn't even mention the belt this is even more hilarious to me steve urseg made his debut at ufc 289 in june of two thousand and twenty three a month after bala muhammad had his most recent fight against gilbert burns and for almost a year bala mahomet has been screaming give me a title fight give me a title fight Leon Edwards, where are you at? I want this title shot. Dana promised it to me. Where am I? And little Steve Ersig, not Fichento.

Steve Ersig comes in there. Doesn't even ask for it. Barely mentions the title and he sneaks into a title fight less than a year into his UFC run and does so before Bilal Muhammad gets a title fight and Marab de Wallis-Millity, if we're being fair as well. That is insane to me. That, to me, was one of the glaring things

that stood out about all of this. Poor Balal deserves it so much. And yet, I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't get it. If they gave it to Shafkat instead, they did everything in their power to make sure Bilal didn't fight at UFC 300. And Steve Ersing gets to potentially headline a pay-per-view a month later before Bilal fights for a title. It's crazy. It's absolutely insane.

Maybe he changed the game, gentlemen. It is ironic that we remember the name Steve Erseg and not Bilal Mohammed. So I'll give you that. We would remember the name Vincenzo Ersig much more. I honestly think I'm going to stop calling him, Steve. I'm just going to call him. I'm with you. I'm with you.

Steve, sorry, you had a great run, but Vincenzo's here to stay. All right, we need to move on. We're rebranding for you. We'll talk more about Jose Aldo. Oh, and also the Jose Aldo fight was bad. And that is also bad. All right, let's move on. Point for round four goes to,

Shaheen all shot. Just play the intro. Just play the music. Yay, Shaheen. Woohoo. Yeah. All right. It means it's time for the knockout round. We're going to unprecedented territory here in the program. Each of the general will have 60 seconds to answer a question. Once that is done, you can vote on who you think won. Was it Jed or is it Shaheen? Jed, what do we thinking here? Do you want to go first or do you want to go second? I'll go second because I'm now in a rabbit hole to see what other

travesties are on 301. Michelle Pahedah is fighting Mahmoud Muradav for reasons that God only knows. The Oralbi fight rules, though, by the way. Who's Oralby fighting? Oh, Elvis Brenner. Yeah, okay, that fight is quite good. I'll go second. Sheen can go while I'm looking at 301.

All right, Chahein. So even though there's so much going on in the news space, there are fights going on this weekend. We have the UFC back of the world. famous Apex on Saturday, headlined by Rosamayunis versus Amanda Hebas, and there's some other fights that are scheduled to happen on that card that may or may not be remembered. But before that, we have the return of Bellator or the reimagining, I guess, of Bellator. We made the Belator Champion Series kicks off in Belfast. We get two title fights and outside of those two title fights. And you could even consider them in this conversation as well, a very bellatory card, Shaheen.

The question is in 60 seconds or less, if you could only watch one of these events, which one are you choosing? Are you picking Bellator Champions series? No number or UFC Vegas 89. Go. Wow. We're really just pulling out all the stops for this final question. Tert sandwich type of situation here.

Jesus Christ, what am I picking? Can we pick an amalgamation of both cards? Because I would like to just see if you took both cards and you smashed them together, how many good fights you would get from that. We already know that the Fart System has this apex card at a 2. I'm curious what the Fart System has Bellator 302, if that's what we're calling it, Belator Belfast.

Either way, if I had to pick one, I guess I'm picking Bellator just because it's going to be, like there's going to be a cool crowd, right? Like, it's in Belfast. It's going to be really cool introductions. And I'm interested to see like all of Donnie D's, proclamations about how the Bellator brand is going to change and the branding and just all of this stuff. Like, I'm interested to see what PFL does with Bellator. Trisio Pitbull is still ostensibly

a very good fighter. Corey Anderson, God, that, you know, it's not great. I'm talking myself out of it in real time, but also the other card sucks too, like Rose Dumas Unis just coming off of, like, she hasn't had a great performance in several times at this point. You know what? What I'm doing, I'm cooking myself a nice steak, getting myself a whiskey, and I'm not watching fist fights at all. If I have my choice, that's what I'm doing. Damn. I mean, we went all over the place here. Jed, I don't know.

I don't know if we want to talk some farts here, but we got you. What's the fart scale for Drew 2? What's the fart scale for? Oh, no, there's no number, Shaheed. Didn't you listen to Don Davis yesterday? They're done with numbers for the newly imagined Bellator. What's the fart score for Belator, Belfast or Belator champion series? Yes.

I'll tell you when my minute starts. I don't want to take up time. I'm a gentleman, you know, I play the game the right way. All right, same question. Go. So the Farts score for the UFC is a two this weekend. For those unaware, Farts is fights above replacement tussle score. So this is what are the generic fights.

And of the 13 fights on the UFC card, there are two total main event. And then I'm giving half points a couple of other places as above a place. So it's a very low score. We've determined the average Fartz score is about a four for Apex cards. So two is very low. For the Bellator Belfast, I just quickly did it. It's three, but Shaheen critically, those three are over cross 11 fights. So that percentage is like 27% of a successful fart above replacement, you know, relative to the rest of the thing.

So it's certainly the better card. Plus, it's on at noon as opposed to 10 Eastern or whatever's the UFC. Belator is clearly the answer here. I'm not here to tell you Belator, Belfast is the greatest card of all time, but there are some fun matchups there. And this UFC card, even through the most generous lens, is a real tough hang. I say it all the time. If you got nothing to do, watch yourself some fights. If you don't, if you got other things, go spend time with your family.

Turn to MMAfighting.com. We'll show you all the highlights, all the good stuff. Is there any chance Bellator gets talked about on this show next week before the UFC card? If Pitbull loses, probably. Nah, still, maybe. Probably not. If PIPPAL loses, that feels bigger than anything that's happening on the UFC event, unless Rose also loses. If Rose loses, that's going to be the lead.

With the way the MMA news cycle's been in 2024, by that point, John Jones might have like, you know, committed assault on some random dude in the street and then four other things have happened that we need to talk about as well. It feels like we just get ridiculous stories every week. That's fair. But you're forgetting that there's the super fun, Nate Kelly parlay in Bellator Belfast to Nate Kelly's. fighting on the same fight card. Come on. Everyone's here for that sort of, that's sort of a great time. Wait a minute. Hold on a second. I mean, this is a newly reimagined Bellator. So it's very bellatory. We got like two and two versus three two and three guys. Isn't one of these fights an

amateur fight? The first Nate Kelly fight. The first Nate Kelly fight is an amateur. I mean, a little season. It's very bellatory. You throw it in the pot and you sprinkle a little PFL in there. you got this card tomorrow afternoon. So vote for who you think is going to win this bad. Three is right. Three is the correct number of farts for this card.

You could convince me three now. Fair. Well, you get to watch them both or you can follow along with them. Mayfighting.com. Cast your vote. There will be a preview show tomorrow for the world's most famous

Apex Return to UFC Vegas 89 as we're on the road to UFC 300. and then there'll be a post-fight show as well. I'm sure some things will happen enough to the point where we will discuss them onto the next one on Sunday. There will be matchmaking that will need to be done. And then we get to turn the page to Curious the Fart Score for UFC Atlantic City. I don't expect it to be much higher than the two for this apex card.

Let me quick look at it. Question for Casey. I'll give you a ballpark. I have a question for Casey. Do we have a draw as one of the options? because I'm seeing lots of draw talk. Oh, what? What?

No. Why did you want to do that? You sprinkle it in. No, no. We have a definitive, we're going to have a definitive winner here. Are you scared? We should have more draws and make.

Shane sounds. Hey, I'm all about 10, 10. No, I'm going to, I'm going to lose. I come on to this program fully expect me. That's okay. That's good attitude.

I'm in, I'm in enemy territory. I'm walking in on. all's thing, you know. Also, Mike, looking at this off the top of my head, looking about four farts next week, you know, we'll do, we'll crunch the numbers later, but it looks about four farts, which is the standard for an apex card, but that's, that's not ideal for a fight night card. Yes, that is true.

How are the votes coming in, Casey? Do we have a definitive winner yet that you mentioned? Oh, yeah, we had it immediately. I've just can't let you talk. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I don't want to talk about to happen, so please. We know what's about to happen. Just let it happen.

Are you ready? It's totally fine. Just let it happen. Yeah, it's okay. Your winner today with a dominating 70% of the votes is. Yeah. Brutal. It's okay.

Do you want to announce it? Shane. No, no, by all means. This is your thing. This is your thing. And still, Jed Mishu. Damn. Yeah.

Jed coming in. It was the Fichenza thing. That's it. That did it. Fichinzo is someone I better work lately. That was a great pull. That was a great pool. Tremendous bull.

Jed, what would you like to say in these final 30 seconds? Like, no one's a loser here because while I am, the most vocal proponent of the fart system. This was really the brainchild of Shaheen Al-Shadi, and I helped get it along to the good space. This is our joint work, and we're going to continue to iterate, to develop on it. I'm so glad that people did not know what this was,

and we're like, why did this judge just have farts written by it? That was a very enjoyable part of the episode, and I look forward to us keeping this system alive in the future. So thanks guys. It's fun. Yes. And I think, Jeanne, we can all thank you as well

for bringing this to our lives. Well, like I said, one of my great joys over the next like three months is going to be people in the comments consistently learning about this for the first time and just watching the reaction because it's quite funny to me because I'm a child. Yes, I think we're all children as we found out last week.

It's so child. It's got to be a thing. The feedback on it was tremendous last week. Casey, you can hit the music so we can get that out here. I think this might be a faulty system. I think that I might have grounds for a complaint here. I'm just saying. Where did all those votes come from, guys? Where did all those votes in the middle of the night? Where'd they come from? People ask a good question. BTO owes you. BTO owes you something, right?

We owe you something. We owe you. The show owes you. The people owe you. And we'll try to repay that. Next week right here on the program for Shaheen, for Jed, for Casey on the once in two. is the iconic voice special and takes you home. Back next week, everybody. Good night. Love you all. This has been Between the Links, an MMA-fighting production

on the Vox Media Network. Farts.