MMA Fighting - BTL | Mike Perry vs. Eddie Alvarez, UFC Austin, PFL Championship, Dana White's Holiday Fight News

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

After a rare weekend off for the UFC, they return this Saturday for UFC Austin, which is one of the best Fight Night offerings of the year, while BKFC may be bringing the craziest fight of the weekend between Mike Perry and Eddie Alvarez.  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss Saturday’s UFC card in Texas, the main event between Beneil Dariush and Arman Tsarukyan, the new lightweight co-main event between Bobby Green and short notice replacement Jalin Turner, and more. Additionally, they’ll discuss a loaded BKFC 56 card headlined by Perry vs. Alvarez, former UFC heavyweights Ben Rothwell and Todd Duffee in the co-main event, Dana White’s holiday weekend announcements this past week — and a possible leak for Kevin Holland vs. Michael Page — grading the PFL World Championship event and the improvements that need to be made, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Shaun Al-Shatti. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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 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 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. MAFighting 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 is Thursday. We're back on YouTube. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is having a great week so far. A lot to talk about on the show. So let's not waste any time. Let's get right into it. Let us introduce the combatants. Love when there's an MMA fighting family feud. And that's what we're going to have today. First, let's introduce Mr. No Hot Take. Actually, Mr. Hot Tag, Mr. No Gray area. I get those confused once in a while. He's one half of the gambling duo that is no bets barred and more for MFA Fighting.com, Mr. Jedmishu, the cannibal kid himself.

Hey, buddy, big weekend for you in the Bulldogs Nation, is it not? Big weekend. Very big weekend. We're looking to go back to back to back, and the road starts here. So Saturday's going to be fun. Get to watch, get to watch the Scy Championship, and then get to tune in and watch a whole bunch of fighting. There's a whole lot of stuff happening this weekend. So it's going to be a nice little weekend, baby.

I'm excited. Let's go. Yes, and his opponent, it's always an honor and a privilege to have on the wise wordsmith, my fellow bald brethren, the deputy editor for MAAFinding.com, the captain of the M.A. Fighting podcasting network, Mr. Sean Al-Shadi. Hello, sir. Welcome back to BTL. What's up, gentlemen?

I'm so happy to be here. There's no family feud here. It's nothing but love. I'm always happy to come in here. I mean, this is the house you and Jedbilt, so I'm just a guest. I'm happy to be a guest. Also, Jed, like, what's the nerves rating? Because it's Alabama, right?

like even if you beat them a couple times recently like what's the nerves i feel like it's always got to be 10 out of 10 so the nerves are low not because like i'm really confident we're going to win i do think we're going to win but like i this whole season was extra like this was all great we went back to back like as long as we didn't go o for this year i wasn't ever going to be upset i will admit it's very frustrating because earlier in this season babel looked like trash like they lost to Texas, they were barely beating some real trash teams. It was like, oh, Georgia might not be that great this year because we were having our own struggles, but at least Bam is bad, so we got a shot here.

They have come on quite strong. They're touched by God. I don't know if you all watch the, the Bam Auburn game, but I've literally never seen a larger choke job in sports. And I live in Atlanta, Georgia, right? Like, I have 28 to 3 got nothing on Auburn just throwing that game away. every chance they get. So yeah, obviously concerned

that one of these teams appear to be God's chosen team. But hopefully, you know, it won't matter. We're just going to throw them all to Brock Bowers a bunch. It'll be okay. It does feel like if it was going to happen, it would be to happen this year

with the zombie trash Bama team somehow making it into the college football playoff anyway, even though nobody wants them there. Exactly. It's going to be the year where everyone's like, Bamma might not be good that they suddenly pull it all off and then they win everything

and ruin Michigan people. people like live. So yeah, if you're just, if I'm just looking at this game, super nervous. We're also like five and a half point favorites. That's a, that's a number that vague is like, I don't know what that means. I don't know what's happening in this game. So yeah, I got concerns in the in the micro macro back to back, baby. I don't care. We're golden. I'm dropping a stack on Bama as soon as this shows over. You've convinced me. You've sold me. Five and a half is such a trash line. It's like I don't, no one knows what's about to happen in that game.

This weekend's going to be fun, guys. An SEC champion will be crowned. Just like six million dollar champions were crowned in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital this past Friday. PFL had their world championship events, and it just ended five minutes ago. It was capped up by Olivia Aubin Marciate's second street. Great lightweight title win.

We had impicus sang and I's rag to rags to riches story come to fruition. Very cool story there. We had the successful return of Kayla Harrison, the PFL debut of Derek Brunson, and much more. Jed, whether people watch this live or not,

it was pretty easy to see what was happening via our website, via social media, with this event coming off of the acquisition of Bellator, which happened a few days prior. So for the first, week as the quote unquote co-leader including this championship event how do you grade the pfl's first week as the co-leader in m mhm a dude that's why you can't say shit like that down davis because you are just going to get memed into the ether like it is just when daniel kormay comes on

the mhm a hour and just like dismisses you as an entity like come on bro you're not going to be the co-how are you going to co-lead olivier open marsi and that's your co-leader. It was, it was as, DC was as dismissive as he was about Ryan Bader's chances to fight him, which has always been like my favorite thing. DC doing that,

him doing that to, uh, who, who was it? Who did he just mock in cage, uh, trying to think. So one of the random light heavyweets like,

yeah, Jimmy Manawa. It was Jimmy Manoa. That was exactly it. Oh my God. I could, just like, yeah, dude. Like, it's not that impressive. Like, you knocked out Cory Anderson.

Whatever, dude, it's fine. Like, that's it. And that's why you don't say shit like that because you don't give people bullets to shoot at you. And now for the rest of time, like, maybe it's better than the 80% Asian comment, you know, on that post. But still, we're just going to be dunking on PFL for the rest of his existence as the co-leader in the sport.

The same way we do with one and it's billions of viewers. Like, just, make this harder man that being said look uh pfl 10 was it was what it was uh i think all of us thought that this wouldn't be that exciting uh i thought last year's card had a lot more opportunity to be exciting on paper and then obviously with the kala thing happening then it ended up being like a a substantial event that's nothing happened here that's like like what is the big takeaway is it uh you know oam getting the double champion and then retiring, I guess, is kind of cool.

Impa's story is very cool, but that doesn't have like long-term juice here. So this, watching this card, and we can get into the particulars of it with all the Bellator kind of interweaving that they put there, your mileage may vary. The thing that struck me the most watching this was, man, they need Bellator because they need the Bellator fighters,

because the best fighters on screen on Friday, were not PFL. I mean, now they are, but they are not people who have been competing in the PFL for some time. So they need that juice to make this thing sing in 2024. Sean, I remember doing this show after the PFL championship in 2022. And we were like, man, this is a snowball turning into like an avalanche because there was so much momentum coming out of that event with Kayla losing.

All the fights were exciting. Like, we did a post show after that event because it was so exciting. This one, like four minutes in, we're like, yeah, there's no chance to doing a post-fight show on this one. And it just went on forever. And I mean, look, cool stories. It was a card. It was underwhelming on paper, probably performed worse than that in actuality. But what do we grade this thing?

We do have six new millionaires and that's always good. What do you grade the event? What do you grade the first week since the Bellator acquisition? you're muted strong start very very strong story i asked jed did you give an actual grading i didn't uh see it's like very mid yeah well here's the thing right and like this is sort of the reality with these pfl championship events always every year like last year was sort of an anomaly but like any time you have six fights that are title fights that are five round fights that have the potential to go 25 minutes you're really

really, really risking the MMA gods, right? Like, you're really just wagering against them because more often than not an event like that will become a bad event. That was a bad event, right? Like, it wasn't a great watch. I think anybody who stuck through it, you know, kudos to you.

That to me was one of those that I go through the next day and sort of watch the highlights and watch the fights rather than just watching all the in-betweens. That being said, I have to give it a C-plus, right? Because I can't go lower than a C-plus on any night where six different, and the May fighters got paychecks of seven figures, just because that doesn't happen very often in this sport.

And that to me is still special. That to me is still why it's meaningful that the PFL does what they do. But I mean, God, you look at that event. I would challenge both of you right now. Can either of you, and I know you guys sat through, you guys covered it for the website, can you off the top of your heads, tell me all six champs? Ooh. Okay.

Impa OAM Pacheco. You got the easy ones. You got the easy ones. Heavyweight was Dennis Galtsov. Oh, it was not. It was not. No, no, because Dizs Galtesl had lost a Hinnamperea,

which I should know because I made a bet on an unfetter. What? Come on. There we go. Double Magamad is five. Come on. You got it. You're so close.

You're so close. Who? What's the other weight class? I got to go through weight classes. There was one of them on the preload. Hey. Oh, Panato. There you go.

There you go. There we go. It took some work. It took some work where we got. Yeah. I probably, if I took enough time, I would have could have gotten there by weight classes. But yeah, that was tough. And I've watched so much PFL this year.

And that exercise alone, everything we just did is exactly why there's a problem with that event, right? Because you guys sat through 20 hours of that and it didn't stay in your brain. it was gone the moment that you were told it. And so just fundamentally, I think there's something wrong and broken with the way that event is structured. I don't know what the solution is. I don't know if it's taking it to a two-night thing, maybe back to back, where you have three of the title fights on one night, three of the title fights on the next night.

And it's sort of like a big blowout, especially now that you have this Bellator roster, right? Like there are, BFL's roster got substantially better. Jed is 100% right in that most of the best fighters that were around that night were the Bellator fighters. So that in and of itself, like, I think there's going to, the next iteration of this, I'm interested to see the changes that they make and sort of how they can evolve this. Because I think like anyone can watch that show and just if you're being, if you were just not being incredibly biased for its PFL, you understand like this was not a great watch. So in and of itself, not a great time, but I have to give it a C plus because again, seven or six new millionaires in MMA does not happen.

And that is a cool thing. That is special in and of itself. Let's just stop with the co-leader thing, please. Yeah, I mean, at least... Don't they do two nights for WrestleMania now? Isn't that like a thing? Yeah, yes. Yeah, just do that.

It makes so much smarter. You don't have to do all of this. Plus, like, I think that one of the most underutilized things in promoting combat sports is just like frequency. Like, why is Hamzaa Chimae of a star? Like, there are many factors to it. But honestly, one of the biggest reasons is he fought three times in a month. And so people just have to have...

had a thing that they could gravitate to very easily. And yes, he was impressive, but it was also, you just saw him a bunch. Like, it is much better for the PFL to be on Friday and Saturday night when I open up my ESPN Plus app. And I'm like, ooh, here's this thing. This is now happening more frequently. I have more like, oh, maybe I should check this out than it is. Ah, here it is this Friday.

And now it won't happen again for five months. Like just back to back night. This is so simple. I have no idea why we haven't gotten to there yet. And that's the thing that's frustrating. about all this because it is self-inflicted wounds, right? Because there are cool stories here. Like Ipa Kisaganay, his journey from basically being on the wrong end of one of the wildest

highlights any of us will ever see in our life. And that felt like what his whole legacy was going to be. And then we go through this journey of he's like, he's homeless, he's sleeping in his car for six months. And all of a sudden he's winning a million dollars because he starts in the Challenger series and really works his way up in the way that PFL designed it and intended this thing to work. He is the perfect case model.

If I'm PFL, I'm trying in Bikasagin. out for the next six months to everybody that would talk to him and just telling that story of what this man's 2023 has been like because he is the model. He is the model. If you're going to do this season format, he is the model for why this is worthwhile and valuable to the space. But it's just the self-inflicted wounds. Like, especially if we're going to go on media tours calling ourselves the UFC essentially,

you've got to be better than that. Yeah. Even not even the two night thing. Just do it two weeks. Like do a Friday night the week before. Do it on ESPN Plus. Like just do a free event. Put all the exciting fights on that first one.

Let's wet the whistle a little bit. And then we put all the big names on the next one. Like that's, at least you're giving us something like back to back nights is just a lot, man. It's just a lot. It seems simple. But production for back to back events, that ain't easy to do. I mean, if it was easy, they wouldn't be making millions of dollars. Like I got no fucking money.

They got Saudi money. They got all the sonny money. That's a great. You do make a good point. I guess your fucking job. Deal with. Same building? When they do the Bellator PFL thing, don't do this.

Don't do six fights or whatever. Split them up, do a Friday and a Saturday and take that whole weekend. Choose that weekend to dominate that weekend because it is a cooler thing to tell. And maybe you'll lose. Like maybe not everyone will be stoked about it. But I am so convinced that that would generate more interest and be a better move than here our six title fights, hope we get some finishes, because otherwise we're looking at five hours of this. Like, no, I think just commit. Go all in. It might be difficult. That's why you get paid

big money. With all that Saudi money, you can afford it. I think there's a way to keep these cards neat and tidy, short and sweet. Hey, three hours, four hours, get in and out. And then the next night, right, if you do this on a Friday, if three millionaires on that Friday, maybe you have some cool Bellator PFL fights as well, just some like highlight fights. Then the next night, you trot out the three millionaires. They're walking around with their big giant checks, maybe buy them some fancy suits, whatever, be like, look, they're already richer. And just like you can make this a thing.

Get them like there's a way. Just sceptors and crowns to mosey around and meet and greet with the fans in the aisles. Be terrific. Just have a big scoreboard PFL versus Bellator and like, all right, Bellator's up to a 3-0 lead from Friday night. Can PFL battle back? They can't, but still like to do cool shit. Now we're iterating.

Now we're now we're ideating. All right. So I like all what you're saying. I'm not a big Harry Potter guy, but I do know one thing about Harry Potter that they have the big scoreboard for Griffin, Dore, Slytherin, whatever the points that they get throughout the week. All of 2024 just needs to be the Harry Potter board for PFL. I want Bellator versus PFL the whole year and I need a scoreboard the entire.

the entire year telling the whole story of what's happened. Let's go. Come on. PFL, if you're not going to do this, I think we should do this as a website. We can just keep track of that on our own. We can put it up on the rankings page as its own little sublet, you know? Like, I love this idea. This is fantastic.

Also, you know, I know you're a gambling guy. Now we can throw odds into this. If I give you plus minus 23.5, Bellator winning over PFL, you take the under the over the over. Oh, my God. That is so good. Yes. Oh, I'm taking, I mean, Bellator's going to cover 23 and a half, I think.

You think they cover that spread? I think so. I mean, that's a big number. That's why spread's work out is a big number. Oh, we can have so much fun with this. PFL, call us. Just call us. Make the phone call.

Honestly, somebody from Saudi, just give us a bunch of money. We can try this out. Yeah, we'll do it. I don't know what we'll name it. but we'll figure it up. We'll get the anthem for two nights. We'll kick shine down out of there. They move them to the following weekend.

You know what I mean? Like, you're out of here. We're doing back-to-back nights. You ain't taking this building from us. No way. I love all of these ideas. And this is why we do this. Like, we sit there and we, you know,

we dump on the PFL from time to time, but it's only because they can do better. And we want them to do better. We don't want them to fail. We want them to be a great alternative. We want another option for the fighters. because if this fails, they're all screwed. It's UFC or bust.

Then you got nothing. Like this needs to succeed. Big time. We need this to happen. Plus, I'm like honestly, I'm sort of into their concept of the sport. I don't think that it works like writ large,

but I do think doing seasoned MMA is cool. That's a cool thing to do. I don't think they're doing it even remotely close to what that should be. But like, yeah, keep doing it. different thing approaching the game in a different ways. Cool. Like, obviously I want that to work. Belator became the way. I fucking like the IFL, which was stupid, but I enjoyed the hell out of that. Belator became their worst when they tried when they essentially just settled into being UFC light,

like UFC Walmart brand. Like being different is interesting because we get so much UFC. We have UFC every freaking weekend. Like we are inundated with it. Anything different is welcome. And also I love the comment section so much. Kyle just in the comment section killing me. Finally, Jed goes full dark. side and adopts an attorney haircut is my favorite comment that has ever been spoken on this website that's pretty pretty well done Kyle respect also Casey with the camera work closing in on on Jed there perfect so good so good there are things they missed on I liked that they brought in the bellator champs some of them anyways like Chris Iborg not being there was like maybe the biggest miss of the night like how do you not put her in that cage with Kayla Harrison even if you're just

teasing this like hey she's going to fight Lauren of first, but then, like, that's the moment. You wanted any traction onto this event? That one moment would have gotten you everything you needed. Everything. And it didn't happen. I have to assume that there were reasons because the people running PFL aren't idiots, right? Like, they, I mean, this is the same company that put Maurice Green in the main event,

specifically so John Jones would be there the same day Francis was there. Like, they at least have an understanding what's going on. I have to assume that there was, there is an explanation that is just not out there for why Cyborg was noticeably absent from this event. Yeah, I would love to find that out. Everything about the Cyborg chapter right now is an F. Everything. If you're giving me, if you're demanding the Pacheco versus Cyborg fight before the one fight

that we've literally all talking about for like two and a half years, in addition to not bringing her there, like you are completely mishandling this. I love Luke Thomas, promotional malpractice. Yes, do better. We know you can. Last thing before we move on. Do the thing. Just do the thing. Just do the thing. Yes, this is around the time. Do the thing. So much. Yes. It was October of 2022 when Do the Thing became a thing. We kind of took it our foot off the gas of the Do the Thing.

But we might have to really just stamp down on it now and go full hyper speed at this. Real quick, Sheen, this is some news that came out this morning via the Hollywood reporter. PFL sticking around ESPN. for all the fun stuff, the regular season, the playoffs, the World Championship, the exclusive home for the PFL, pay-per-view division, whatever they're going to be doing with Francis, maybe Jake Paul makes his MA debut. Your reaction to this.

Some people were surprised. I wasn't all that surprised, but what was your reaction when you found this out? I'm not surprised than the slightest. This is very clear what this is, right? Because of the deal that happened over the last two weeks, There are two very clear in North America main players. It's PFL and UFC. Obviously, they are not co-leaders, but that is the one and two.

ESPN is the home for MMA. That's what it is at this point, right? Like, if you have both of them under your umbrella, you are the one-stop shop for MMA, essentially, for the entire, this half of the world, more or less. Like, that is a great deal. That's a great bet to go on, especially considering what we just saw with the big talent burst that PFL just got with the PFL roster. Like, this is not a surprise in the slightest

and good on PFL, man. And that is the thing. Like, the thing with Bellator, like, their slow demise was expedited once they just started being a traveling band that was on 40 different streaming services every other week. Once people lost the ability to know where Bellator was

and it goes on CBS Sports Network, then it goes to the zone, then it goes to Showtime. And at a certain point, people just don't care. Because people, that's the thing with MMA fans. We've seen it over and over again. they're not going to work hard to find your product if you're not putting it in front of their face

unless you're the UFC. The UFC can survive this thing. They can travel to different channels and broadcast networks and platforms and whatever. No one else can do that. And at Bellator, it was too many, two times, too many times, I think I said that, right? That they just abandoned whatever platform

and went to something else. And by the time they were on the zone, nobody cared about them, right? So if your PFL is a consistent home, you're on the same platform as the UFC, it's easy for everybody to find. Everybody already has it. It's a win.

Ted, what did you think of this news? Were you surprised? No. Well, maybe like a little. I think ESPN obviously just wants to be in there for all the reasons that Shaheen said. I don't, do we have the particulars of the deal? I don't assume.

There's no actual like numbers. There's no numbers. Yeah. I would have thought that maybe they tried to shop it a little bit more as more players are getting into the space. you know, Amazon is with one and unclear how long that relationship's going to last moving forward. Netflix is trying to really get into the live sports. Like there are buyers for the product that is being sold.

I would have thought that any deal might have been a little more short term for PFL just because this is not like this is not Apex sell time for PFL, right? Like this is this is the start of the transition year. So the previous couple of years have been growth and building. Now they with the acquisition of Bellator like it pretty pretty clearly demarcates. Now this next five year stretch we are going to try and be co leaders of the sport or whatever. So ostensibly that means their next one to two years will be the best years of their company. And at that point like you can sell for just a higher dollar figure than they can right now. Because any sale that they are making is not on what they can deliver, like what they have delivered.

It's on what they can deliver in the future. And so you're going to get 70 cents on the dollar if your PFL here was. Maybe you just re-up with ESPN for a year and then renegotiate after what hopefully will be the best you've had on record and can juice more. But I don't know, maybe ESPN just gave them a good deal and they were comfortable with it. So it was interesting. I thought this could have played out a little longer. but it sort of always made the most sense they already have an established brand here

stick around with ESPN and continue to kind of try and draft off the UFC some too as the other major player for ESPN's MMA division, you know? Yeah, I mean, if you're ESPN, I mean, it's multi, it just said it's a multi-year deal. That could be two years. We don't know. There's no, it could just be a two-year deal.

And if you're going to introduce Francis and Jake Paul and some of these other names, like, it's probably worth the risk for a two-year deal, right, to see if this all pays off. If your ESPN, it's definitely worth the risk to take this. 100%. That was interesting. Yeah.

I didn't think we'd spend 30 minutes on the PFL, but we did. Let's move on. The point for round one goes to. We got to talk about the co-leader. Point for a whole. We're going to dunk on them forever for that. We're going to dunk in them forever for that. Shaheen, I'll shot.

I wish I could get both of you guys a point because between the two of you, We're co-leaders. We're co-leaders in the points that round. You're co-leaders on BTL and I respect you both. Oh, man. I just something that occurred to me. But what? Something just occurred to me.

We're going to have to figure out a new person to have for the MMA draft next year. Oh, I've been thinking about it since the announcement and it's, it's bleak in them streets. I have no idea what we're going to tell. Particularly because one looks like it's also just circling the drain, too. So like the MMA drafts is going to struggle in coming years. I mean, we might have to do a Dada 5, 5,000's bare knuckle promotion at this point. I mean, look, Gamebred MMA is all. Oh, that's a great call.

Oh, there we go. That's a great call. Yes, game bread, bare knuckle. Come on down. I think you might just be the new replacement here. But I mean, look, we can make this easier. AK was last place in the voting two years in a row. I think there should be a rule.

You just get out of there. If you're last two years in a row. I'm just kidding, A.K., we love you. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games

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And then right after the Georgia football game ends, you get to. to lean right into like the really juicy good stuff for UFC Austin. I love this card, headline by Bineal Darius versus Armand Saruki, and we got Bobby Green versus no longer Dan Hooker, but now Jalen Turner. This whole main card is freaking spectacular. Shaheen, we're a couple days away from this thing.

I feel like it's kind of flying under the radar. There was a little bit of drama in Austin yesterday between a couple of the guys that we just mentioned, but all in all, main card, in a lot of these prelim fights, this is a freaking great fight night card, is it not? It's a banger. It's a banger in Mike Heck.

Also, I wish the drama just was between people who are actually fighting. That is my one great. Like, I always hate this when we get the in-week drama between people who are never actually going to settle it between each other, or at least like not on the week of. It bothers me. But either way, like, it's so funny to watch this play out of like the way the schedule lays out, right? Because it's obvious that when the U.S.

travels to other places they have to actually try. And I love it when they actually try. Because then we get things like this fight card, right? UFC Austin is awesome up and down. Like the whole main card bangers. There's storylines all over. Misha Tate's on the freaking prelims. When was the last time you remember that happening? Like all together, it's a great card. I'm very curious to see how many Michulin stars it gets. It has to be at least a one to two Michulun star card. But I love it. I just love when the UFC has to try. They don't have to try at the apex. They have to try when they're actually selling tickets. And that's what you get. I'm here for it. One to two, Michoulin Sarjad, maybe a three? Is this a three? It's definitely not a three.

Okay. Look, the main card is exceptional. I'm doing this perfectly, frankly, because I'm going to watch the UGA game, and I'm going to miss the Rodolfo-Belato-Ihor-Potieria fights of the world. I'm just going to watch UGA win and then going to glide seamlessly into the Punahili Soriano. Like, let's go. Like the good fights, as it were. This is such a bifurcated card. The main card is awesome. The undercard is not.

It's just not. So by virtue of the main card, it's definitely a one star. I've spent some time trying to figure out if it's a two star because I had, I'm realizing a flaw in my process because the two star has just sort of like generically been And all right, you would take a trip to see it. And in my head, that's always been like, well, I've thought about it in my life. Like, okay, well, like if something's happening in the state of Georgia, I will go to it if it's a two-star fight card. If it's in Atlanta, it's one star.

But if it's like, oh, I'd drive down to Savannah Ford or, oh, I'd drive up to Nashville, which is just a few hours away. And, you know, in the same. It doesn't really work for Texas because you can spend 18 hours driving in the state of Texas. This is sort of tough here. I think, though, if I was a few hours outside of Austin, you know, whatever that would be, I think this makes it to a two, but it's more of a tweener. It's between one and two. It's definitely one.

Could be a two. And certainly if the fight card lives up to it, then after the fact, we'll just go ahead and give it the second star. But I think we're going to cautiously leave it at one for now. Fair enough. Let's talk about this main event yet. We get Benile Darius versus Armin Sauru Kinn. It's just a great fight. Armourkeen finally getting his opportunity to fight a top five guy.

Benil Darius, looking to bounce back from the loss to Charles Oliva. It's just been kind of a weird year in a weird couple, like 18 months or so for both of these guys. Benil Daryush at the press conference at his media day yesterday said he gains nothing from this fight. I don't know if I totally agree with that or not. Dead wrong. Super wrong. So why is why? Why is he wrong, Jed?

And what are these guys fighting for? I know, like, we talk about squatting. We talk about this division. It's so hard to get some movement here. But why is Darius wrong? And how does that sort of transition to the other question? What are these guys fighting for? So he's wrong because he's because of what they're fighting for very specifically.

Before I get that, we'll say that an esteemed member of our family here at MAAfighting.com reached out to me last night and asked to, I won't put this person on blast in case they don't want to be. But he asked a very simple question of, where does Darius rank on the all-time worst people on the mic? Top five easily, right?

And one, yes, he's undeniably top five. And I mean, there are. He has got a strong case you made. Because every time he gets a mic in front of him, he just says the worst thing. It's like if Balaulah, Muhammad's last year was just his entire career of every time the mic's in front of them. I'm going to do the worst shit I possibly can do.

But Neil Daryush coming out here as like, I gained nothing from this fight, but I just like to fight good dudes. No! That's just not true. You're right. If like the reading between the lines, that is just a petulant, I'm not getting to fight Dustin Porier for a number higher than myself. So I gain nothing.

thing because that's the only way to view that is true because one you got to fight a dude with the higher ranking than yourself last time out and he greased you in a round like that's you can't be mad that you got your shot and blew it to armand surukin is like the dude who has been anointed certainly by the mhm a hipster club uh mike you you're you're there i'm there shaheen i believe you're there we're all pro oh yeah suruqien is going to be a top 10 guy for a decade he's probably going to fight for a title has a really good chance to win a belt at some point in his career. Like, everybody is super high on this guy.

And you can't always fight a dude in front of you. Like that sometimes you have to fight back, particularly when you lose, you got to defend your spot. This is just like Justin Gaechi fighting Hafeel Fiziv. Like, Gachi lost and is in a position where he now has to defend his position in the ranks to get there. He beats Fiziv, who had the same sort of, you know, juice behind him that's Sarukian does and immediately he's like all right now I get to fight Dustin

Porre in a BMF title slash title eliminator. It's the exact same thing for for Benny D here like if he beats Arm on Surukian on Saturday he's one fight away and that's what these two dudes are fighting for they're not fighting for a title shot unless some things break right they are fighting for a title eliminator because the winner of this is going to fight somebody I'm not honestly not sure who that will end up being the next guy they fight will be a title Eliminator bout. Maybe it is maybe it's just Dustin Poirier. Maybe it's

Dustin Poir at UFC 300. You're telling me that winning a fight that gets you Dustin Poria at UFC 300 is worse shit. You can't math. You don't know what adding is if you can't figure this out. This is not hard. This is an incredibly important and very useful. They're not making you

fight a dude who's top 10 and everyone like believes in. They're not making you fight like some dude who if you lose to it's going to real trash. They're not making you fight like, God love him, but Benoit Sandini is not nearly kind of where Armand Sarukian is down the line. Like he could be, have it so much worse. And so this is such a misread of what is going on for him. He has got everything to fight for this Saturday outside of just the spirit of competition. So take that, internalize it, win this fight and

just call me. Hit me up. My DMs are open. I'll tell you what to say on the mic instead of, I love Jesus and I'll fight a hundred more times if that's what it takes because those are not the things that are going to get us where we need to be, Benny. No horn for that? Wow. I'm stunned. I really expected one. All right. Oh, yeah.

I sat back. I let it simmer. We got a round of applause. I was just soaking it in. It was just soaking it. It was too good. It was too good. It was really well said.

Shaheen, what do you think? Well, I'm just glad you finally got there because I was going to be very almost like upset with you if you didn't get. to the, I'll fight a hundred more times one because all of everything he said this week pales in comparison to that one because I don't remember which one that was.

I don't know if that was after Ferguson or after that was after. I was after Gamron. It was Gamron. Okay, yeah. Right before the title was going to be on, the vacant title was on the line. Like two fights before the vacant title being on the line. He said that.

I will gladly fight a hundred more times if that's what it takes. That is the worst Mike moment in the history of the UFC. Yeah, no, I mean, I don't even have much to add to that. Because this whole, I know this is kind of like a throwaway line. And you mentioned, Jed, this is almost just coming off as someone upset that they're having to take this fight rather than a Dustin Poirier, who's at every single turn just basically. So like, yeah, not really that interesting, which like I can understand that that would be probably pretty frustrating if you're Bernil Daryush, who has continued winning fights for the most part, except for that last one and very highly ranked person, veteran who's been in this game a long time. and you just can't get this dude to even acknowledge that you are worthwhile whatsoever. Like, that's got to be pretty frustrating.

But you said the key. Armand Sarukian is not like they're asking you to fight Grant Dawson or something, right? Like Armand Sarucan is more or less the guy at 155 that almost all of us have just anointed as the next big thing. Like he is, like Benoit St. Denis is maybe almost there, but he's not even close to, I would say, where Armand Seruqin has already reached. Like he's at where Armin was maybe a year or two ago. And Arm on it, I mean, what?

If you take away the Gamrod fight, which I think a lot of people feel like he won. I also feel like he won. He's kind of less undefeated in this weight class since he debuted against Islam and had an incredibly tough, surprisingly tough fight on short notice against Islam. Like this guy is not, it's not like there's very little that comes from a win over Armand Sarukin. I would say that this is probably the most meaningful win that Benil Daryush can get outside of the, known guys at 155, the Begachis and the Poiriers, et cetera. So, like, if you're, and Benile's not going to get one of those fights.

So if you're not going to get one of those fights, this is kind of the best case scenario for you. Yeah. I don't know. I don't understand it. Man just said stuff. It happens. But he doesn't say good stuff.

And that's like, that's the, I feel like I'm with Benny where I was with Leon Edwards, right? Like, even more so. Because what you said about Dustin Poirier, like that, I think that's the crux of it, right? Like, it, I agree. it has to be really frustrating. At some point, look inward. Why are you the man that people don't give a shit about? Because you're part of this equation, my brother.

Because it is not like he is a boring fighter. We've all watched Benny fight. He's nails. Like he's a sick fighter. There's no reason that Dustin Poy is shouldn't be interested, but it's after you have a sick-ass fight with Scott Holtzman or whatever. You get on the mic and like, thanks, Jesus. Love you guys.

everyone's great. Like, no, be fucking interesting, man. You can't be this boring. You can't be this boring. Like, I know you want to do it the right way. Nobody has ever or will ever be George St. Pierre. He's the only person in history who managed to be a star while being the most boring man on the mic that ever there was.

And you can't replicate it. So if that's the goal, just don't do it. Say anything. Talk about something you care about. I'm not saying, you know, be Colby Covington, just be interesting because there is a part of you that is interesting. You just don't show it when a mic's in front of you. And so then no one cares, even if you're super exciting and unbelievably good.

And you know, it's a bummer that this is sort of the conversation we're having, frankly, about this. And maybe Benile brought it upon himself. But like the real reality of this situation in this week is that Benil Tarush is 34 years old. And he is getting sneaky old in this lightweight division that is a young man's game. And I do not know if he loses this one, it might be it for him, right? At least in terms of the title chase. Like, we've seen it time and time again. He is not someone that the UFC is going to bend over backwards for

and properly matchmaking to get back to a title if he wins this, if he loses this one. Like if he, if this is not go well for him, he is not going to ever sniff that title shot ever again. So like this is a very, very important weekend for him. So the fact that this is the conversation we're having is another indictment upon himself, I guess maybe, but also maybe it's an indictment upon us because this just is such a meaningful fight for someone who has mattered for so long in the most talent-riched division in this entire sport.

Yeah, you can make the case that this is the most important fight of his career. Like everything is on the line here. If he loses to Armin, he's never fighting for the belt. The fact that he's even in this position after getting dusted by Charles Olivera, he should be pretty happy about this. Like, honestly, he should be very happy about this.

He's still in play here because of this fight. The move 1,000% is just the whole entire week. This is the guy. No one will fight this guy. Everyone's scared to fight this guy this week. I'm not a coward. I am a badass. I'm going to beat this guy.

This is my last run at it. And we're going to beat this guy and go straight to the title. Like that is it. That is it is such a simple thing. I don't know. It's so simple. It's so. He doesn't have to invent a new playbook of things.

He just has to have watched any fighting ever. She'd be like, okay, well, here's the lines. Here's the dialogue. No one wants to fight. Umar and Mergamatov. I'll be that guy. Like, just say it. It's easy.

Come on. Co-made events actually pretty interesting now as well. We got Bobby Green, who's supposed to fight Dan Hooker. I got to say, I really like that matchup for Bobby Green because Dan's just been through a bunch of wars, literally just had one. Arm injury, same arm he hurt in the Jalen Turner fight. the aforementioned Jalen Turner stepping in on a little over a week's notice. Jed, as, I mean, both of you guys have been extremely high on Jalen Turner.

Jed, is this the right choice here? Is this the right choice? Do you have any concerns about Jalen making 155 on such short notice when he didn't for Dan Hooker? Like, what do you think of the replacement? What do you think of this fight now? Yeah, I got a lot of concerns. When they announced him, I was like, that is not. the one I anticipated because we know that he's enormous and he did you know miss weight last time out

he struggles to make the weight class so doing this on short notice then you hear some of his comments sort of feeling like he had to take this fight or whatever think there could be a couple of interpretations on really what that means but like not what I anticipated and like if he comes in and you miss his weight tomorrow then I where does that put us right like what or what does this fight even mean. This fight is being interesting is really contingent on him making weight. If he doesn't, it's on the merits. It's still a fun fight because they are two quite fun fighters.

But, you know, if he misses weight and then beats Bobby Green, what does that do to Bobby Green's spot in the lightweight rankings? What does that do for Jalen Turner who misses weight back to back this second time, not in great circumstances? They're probably going to start pressing for him to move up to Walterweight. Like, it's a lot is contingent on tomorrow morning in the scale. but assuming everything goes right jalen turner can make it and we have this um also just a super weird like bobby green's bobby green man he going to fight whoever you put in front of him he's he's built like

that uh jalen turner's a real tough ask at any point in time and certainly on short notice uh i think this is assuming he can make the wait i think this is a terrific opportunity for bobby green i think that might be why he would you know be keen to jump onto it because you know he is coming off two lost in a row. Now it's top 10ish guys or whatever, but the Dan Hooker fight is, that's a tough one. That is the, the Matush Gamrot lost. That's a loss that can happen. Dan Hooker is where I started to be like, I might need to reevaluate what I think Jalen Turner is and can be in this weight class, right? So he gets to come in. He gets to fight Bobby Green, who's probably a little more highly ranked than like is true. If you know what I mean,

like he's probably got a little more juice than actually should have. But he's, can sort of get that win immediately kind of silence the critics that he had and now start building himself back up to make that run you know towards a benille der euse those guys at the top of the division so uh really interested in sort of all the dynamics of this fight as a fight i think jalen turner is just going to dust up bobby green but i i'm bobby green has done a lot of impressive things that i haven't anticipated so um yeah look it's a really solid fight for short notice i'll i'll give it that for sure jean what do you think i mean these guys have history they know each other very well they have been in the training room together

and jalen's taking this fight on short notice and i feel like bobby green is like on the cusp of something huge happening like we talked about this on a heck of a morning like a mazadol like you know just rise here where the the the the grizzled wily veteran that everyone has respect for and wants to see great things happen for just all of a sudden goes on a run and becomes a star and maybe fights for a world title and i kind of feel like especially with him taking a fight like jalen turner on super short notice like the ufc loves this shit if he goes out there and beats jalen turner i think they're going to push this dude to the moon so turner in your thoughts and where bobby green could go if he goes out and beats grand dawson and jalen turner back to back

yeah i hate to say it i mean jett mike you said it at the top. Jed and I have been very high on Jalen Turner. We've sort of been leading this bandwagon for a couple years now. Fellows, I'm a little worried. I'm not going to lie. I am a little worried. The vibes are off this week really hard. I can't remember specifically.

Like, I'm sure this has happened before, but I can't remember a fighter seeming so unenthusiastic about a fight than Jalen Turner did this weekend, just week, just talking about it, right? Like, it's very rare you have a fighter come out and say, like more or less that they got coerced into taking this, that they got like heavily pressured into taking this. And he did not seem thrilled at all to be in this situation, to be accepting this fight on short notice,

having to make weight on short notice and having to face this opponent in particular on short notice. Like nothing about this seems like it's great for Jalen Turner. And you go back to July 2022 after he was just polishing off like a really crazy win streak with that win over Brad Riddell. And I was just, I was all in on this guy. He felt to me like he was going to be a future title challenger. And these past two, man, like ultimately they're both split decisions, right?

Both these past losses. One scorecard either way in either of these fights and we're having a completely different conversation. And Jalen Turner is probably talking about a Baneal-Dar-Yush type of opponent. That's the breaks in this game, though, man. And I don't know. The vibes just seem really, really off for this guy. And it sucks because he is such an exciting addition to this lightweight division. He's only 28.

Like, it feels like we should be maybe reaching, starting to reach the peak or starting to reach the prime years of Jalen Turner and I am just genuinely worried because Mike everything you said 1,000% right. Bobby Green feels like there's a little mysticism to him right now. He feels like Demi Mae May God's have his back where this is, I always love back in the day Nate Diaz used the term reimbursement, right? The Connor McGregor fight was reimbursement for all of the years at beforehand where he's in his like 20th or 21st fight. I remember covering Nate Diaz against Hapio de Sanos here in Phoenix and Nate Diaz misweight for that one. He complained about the UFC the whole week. And he was in his last week.

again, like on his 20th or 21st UFC fight and got paid like 14 grand or something like that because he missed weight and was on a 20 and 20. And so the Connor McGregor payment was reimbursement. And then we saw it for Jorge Mazvedal to this crazy late career run where he just suddenly makes all this money, all the money he probably should have been making all these years, and then rides off into the sunset as a superstar, more or less.

Bobby Green feels like this is kind of happening for him. The Grant Dawson thing was something that none of us saw coming. I did not say a single person in this entire space predict that Bobby Green was go out there and knock out this young gun who is on this crazy winning streak in 33 seconds. Those are the type of things that can catapult you, which is that little, that type of stratosphere, that type of conversation where we're having like a, oh, is this like a Bobby Green moment type of thing? I don't know, man. This feels like a great setup for Bobby Green to continue that, to catapult that himself to where all of a sudden we're actually having a conversation on the post show of like, is Bobby Green versus Beddalen? makes sense? Does Bobby Green versus Armand Sarukian make sense? I don't know. As a Jalen Turner supporter for a long time, I'm worried. I'll admit.

Everything about this has me worried. I got to feel like whoever wins this fight is like if Daryish or Surukin win, I feel like if Bobby Green wins, I feel like he's fighting the winner of the main event. They're going to just push him and give him a big opportunity and see what happens. Like, let's just say, you don't think so? I think if he wins, he's rematching Dustin Poy. C 300. Maybe.

I don't think Dustin has any care or interest in doing it. What? What? Bobby Green? Who is Dustin going to file? Like, Dustin's come out and said he wants to fight at 300. There aren't many names that like makes sense for him. Who?

Nate Deas. What did you say? Okay. That's a pipe dream that I don't feel like is going to happen. But yes, if that's an option, sure, definitely will take it. I am deeply not confident. that that will occur given things. But if it does, yeah, I mean, that would make the most sense.

I'm operating under the assumption that that's not realistic. And so who does Porier fight? Like, I think you could do a Jim Miller rematch, but that's a thing. So like you mentioned, Bobby Green has sort of elevated to not the living legend here, but like widely respected, got a touch of the magic around him, you know, trying to have this Horace-Mossedal-esque Ron. I think that's a perfectly fine fight. Also, fight Porier should feel pretty confident and he wins.

And it's who else is, I just don't know who else he would fight at UFC 300 other than Bobby Green. I think if Bobby Green wins, it's him versus Porte at 300. We shall see. We shall see. The rest of his main card's awesome. Rob Fonfini. Unless D.P. wants to be a nutcase and fight Ben Wausantanini, which I would accept because that would be sick. Oh, now we're talking about.

I mean, I don't think he should or would, but. sign me the fuck up God, damn. That would be the most violent fight in a while. I am really in on that. I kind of feel like Dan Hooker is going to get tossed into that one when he's ready to come back. Hey, Dan, I'm glad you're feeling better. Now you get a fight Ben Wastonni.

Enjoy. See you in a few weeks. Dan's the only crazy, you know, person crazy enough in this division to take that, though. Like, Dan's here for that type of thing. 100%. retire. You just retire. Don't do it to yourself.

Let's move on. Next round. Point for round two goes to. Co points. I mean, Jed, just knocking it out of the park with the Benile Derrush for a moment. Yes. These are teachable moments.

But he also gets points. He's the co-leader in points right now. Yes. Yes. Winner of the Patty Pimblit versus Tony Ferguson fight versus Ben Wausseidney. Oh, my God. You can't. Why do you want to do that?

I mean, I know why you'd want to do it. I know why I want to do this. But what if Tony wins? Let's be real with ourselves here. Feed him to the world chipper then. Wow, I'm stunned. I'm stunned by that. But let's move on.

Because not only is the UFC putting a pretty fun. card together. Our good friends at Bear Knuckle Fighting Championship, look, they aren't all bangers. But once in a while, a couple times a year, BKFC brings the goods.

And BKFC, what is it, 65? I don't remember what, forget of it. 56, 56. Going down in Salt Lake City, there's just so many recognizable names. So much chaos is probably going to happen with the names that are on this card. Jed, let me ask you a question here.

We know UFC Austin's going to be fun. There's four excellent fights. There's some intrigue in other places. Is this the card of the weekend, though? Is the BKFC card the card of the weekend over UFC awesome? Like, if you could only watch one, if MA fights like Jed, you get to choose which one to cover, which one are you picking?

I'm still going to pick the UFC because it's a better card. I do think Perry Alvarez is the fight of the weekend for our particular brand of combat sports fandom, you know? like that fight's just that you don't have to sell that fight that fight sells itself we all know what we're about to get involved in it's going to be awesome they've you know coining the violence belt or whatever for this because look if promotions can have fun it's a thing you can do you don't just have to do the same thing out time and time out uh and here's i like bkFC for a very specific reason they have found a really perfect niche in my life like they have they have really

threaded the needle of three or four times a year we're going to put on a big event for you to care about and then the rest of it you don't have to like there'll be some fights you know you you can care if you want we invite you to enjoy this but it's you know it's just sometimes we're just spinning the wheels and i don't have to focus on them like i would a bell at tour or whatever it's like okay well i don't know rant john dotsin's fighting a dude it's fine but then they put big fights and big events. I'm like, okay, yeah, I want to tune in and pay the 20 bucks or whatever on Fight TV for this. I want to see Eddie Alvarez versus Mike Perry. I am, have a morbid and really gross curiosity about Todd Duffy and BKFC fighting Ben Rothwell. And I'd be honest, that one makes me feel pretty

bad about myself, like deep down in here, but I want to look at that particular train wreck. Jimmy Rivera, Jeremy Stevens, that's a banger. Like, we know what Beck Rollins and Christine Faheta bring in this. So yeah, like they they just know how to put their eggs in just a couple of baskets and then the rest of it is stuff. You know, it's fine, but it's not, it's not prime. It doesn't have any primacy to it, whereas this does. So yeah, pretty pumped about it. And like, if this were last weekend, right, like, or I mean, hell, next weekend, BKFC would easily be the story of the weekend. They happen to be going up again. one of the UFC's better fight night cards over the, you know, back half of the year.

So I've definitely picked that. But what, BKFC 56 worth your time. Yeah, she and I mean, he, he just ran off the top four fights. Alvarez Perry, which we'll get into more in a second. Rothwell Todd Duffy, which I didn't even know about it's like a week ago. Rivera Stevens is ridiculous. Rawlings Faria is ridiculous. Christine Faria is just must watch TV in that ring because I don't think anybody can beat her.

And she just brings the viciousness. This is pretty damn good. This is between Austin starting at 4 p.m. Eastern leading right into this, this is a pretty damn good one-two punch, is it not? Oh, it's tremendous. I mean, what BKFC has done at this point, like, I appreciate them so much because I have, I had a, I came up in the era of pride. I came up in the era of these New Year's Eve events that they would throw,

where there's just crazy shit happening at all times and you're just, all sorts of circus fights. I love circus fights. I'm so here for circus fights. And for so long, there was such. a hole in my life without the wacky zany shit just regularly being in it that that draws you in as a fight fan things like this bkfc has nailed it man if anything like the only thing lacking from a card like this i just need some really weird shit i need like a really fat guy doing something like a well-known sumo wrestler or like fighting a small man or just i need i need just one more little

ounce little drop of just some weird stuff thrown into my life that night but otherwise this is perfection, dude. There are two people in this entire space who were genetically designed for bare knuckle combat to entertain me. And those two people are Mike Perry and Ben Rothwell. Ben Rothwell, I've said this before, but like Ben Rothwell might be the scariest human being in the entire sport if you're just giving him bare knuckle combat, right? Like if you, that large, hairy man running at you, throwing bare fists is everything I ever want out of any sort of fight sports ever. Like I am so, I'm so stupidly excited for a while. Rothwell versus Duffy because we know exactly what that fight's going to look like.

You, me, Jed, all of us could take 200 words, write them down and paint a picture of what this fight's going to look like. And I bet you all three of us are kind of more or less on the exact same page and we're all more or less correct. Like this is going to be 34 seconds of very stupid shit and I'm so here for it. And Ben Rothwell is going to cut an awesome promo afterwards where he laughs like Jafar and it's just going to be so much fun. And I'm so happy that this is in our life.

And then Mike Perry, I mean, obviously, what can you say about the face of bare-knuckle fighting, right? Like, this dude was made for this. I am so, like, the Eddie Alvers fight is not, it doesn't have the elements of the Luke Rockhold fight to me. Like, the Luke Rockhold fight will probably be the peak of what BKFC is unless they somehow managed to find a way to top it. But it's still really good, right? Like, we have so many experiences with Eddie of these type of situations.

I remember when he fought Justin Gaichie for the title of the world's most violent. man. Like Jed said, I always love throwing these little, like, fake titles in, doing little fun things like that. This sport is supposed to be fun. Also, we get to hear Eddie's wife just sort of over and over and over again on the broadcast, streaking like a banchet throughout the entire fight. Like, that's always, that's always fun too. Everything about this is going to be a good time. I'm so here for it. And also, like, I'm kind of interested in seeing what the Jeremy Stevens experiences in BKFC. Maybe Jeremy Stevens is a little bit past it. He's obviously got a lot of mileage on him. But if this was like five years earlier, he could have probably been maybe not a

Mike Perry level, but he, because, you know, he's just not that guy in the Mike. But he is like designed for that side of sort of combat. So I'm interested to see whether that holds up as well. I'm so in on it. I love this event. I can't wait for this. I mean, what is Mike Perry versus Eddie Alvarez actually going to look like? I just, it could be anything. Yeah, it's got to be carnage. There's going to be rivers of blood. Both will probably love it. They might do blood angels in the middle of the ring where they're waving their arms, just enjoying themselves that much. I don't even this fight is so BKFC in the best possible way, Sean. I mean, I don't expect Eddie Alvarez to win this fight because I just don't expect Mike Perry to lose to anybody in this sport ever,

but Eddie is just going to enjoy. Like, this is not going to be the Luke Rockhold fight. The build is not the same as the Luke Rockold fight, but the actual fight itself, not be the Luke Rock will fight. Eddie Alvarez will not be looking for a way out of this ring, right? Oh, no. I mean, don't come on. What are we talking about? We have like 20 years of experience that this man is about this life.

This man from the streets of Philadelphia was born and bred for this. This is what he loves. I wish, my only wish is I wish Eddie at Alvarez had skipped the one championship portion of his career and just gone right to BKFC from the jump after the O.C., because we could have gotten a lot more stuff like this. I don't know how much he has left in him. But even like the Chaz Mendes fight, you saw it. Like he, that dude can dig deep.

He's going to be 60 years old on the streets of Philly. And someone's going to look at him wrong. And he's going to be able to dig deep and summon it back because that's just who this man is. I love it. You're right. This is, this is a perfect match, Megan. Carnage. It's a pretty good word, Jed, to describe this fight, isn't it?

Yeah, man. Look, like, we've all accepted that this is the ideal place for Mike Perry. I honestly think that this is the ideal place for, for Eddie Alvarez. And Eddie Alvarez had way more success than MMA than Mike Perry did. Obviously, championed in basically every organization you went to, one of the absolutely 10 best lightweights of all time.

And I think there's a compelling argument for one of the five best lightweights of all time. Like, it's a dude who was really, really good at MMA. I truly and deeply believe that bare knuckle is actually like where he is best served because of just who he is. And like how he goes about it, like how he gets down. is the same way that it works for Mike Perry, whereas Bear Knuckle really mitigates Mike Perry's disadvantages

and caters to his skill set. Eddie has the exact same skill set, but he doesn't have the disadvantages of Mike Perry had in M.A. So he's just built for this shit, man. Like this is, this is awesome. I am absolutely on board with Shaheen. I wish that he had come to this instead of doing one

because I think he could easily have been the face of Bear Knuckle. had he made that transition and obviously would have been a really big move at the time that happened to do so. But yeah, I'm just going to saddle up and enjoy his time here. And hopefully, hopefully, guys, the great goal is that before it's all said, done, Justin Gichi makes a spin here in bare knuckle. And we get to do Gagie Alvarez, too, in bare knuckle. That's, I could die a happy man if we got that. Just I don't need anything else after that. one through that gachie perry gachy perry i mean gaiti perry look louis palomino's still rocking

around we could do that again it just dude i i'm i'm just saying i think i actually i think when i had bkfc in the draft two years ago my first pick was gaiti to do all of the things that you would do with louise palomino with mike peter so i just need that before it's all said and done um but yeah i mean this is awesome. And I echo what Jean said about Ben Rothwell, too. That's, he's built for this. It's so fun. It's so fun. It's just, it's pure unadulterated.

Fun. And Todd Duffy is so unpredictable in a lot of respects. Todd Duffy being here doesn't make any sense at all. And that's why I love it so much. It's so random and it's great. I, it's the perfect opponent for Ben Rathwell. I guess, like, I think if you'd ask me like a month ago,

whatever, who like one of the least likely people. I think Todd Duffy would have been pretty high on my list of, it wouldn't really make any sense at all for him to go to BKFC, but here we are. The dude just wants to fight somewhere. He doesn't care where. Rise and fight fell through. Go to BKFC.

He may, he's probably going to lose, but I think a lot of eyes are going to be on it. And if he wants another, but it's just the perfect BKFC co-main event. It just is. We'll move on. Quick news and notes, round four, but the point for round number three goes to,

I mean, nobody paints a word picture like Shaheed Al Shadi. Well done. Two to one. Co-co-leader. The co-leader, yeah. Give it to that. Yes. Still co-leading.

Three to three, baby. This is why you don't say stuff like this, Don. This is why you don't do it. This is the first time we've had decimal points here on BTL. Very excited. So. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.

But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Thanksgiving weekend. You knew with the PFL buying Bellator.

You knew with the PFL having the championship coming about. We were going to get some sort of video or two from UFC CEO Dana White. We got the Jalen Turner announcer that you're stepping into fight Bobby Green, but there were two videos. And I think there were three other announcements, one location, one main event announcement, and then one substitution, then moving to a new event that Dana discussed. So, Jed, I'll start with you. Which of Dana White's announcements intrigued you the most outside of the Jalen Turner one?

We have Joe Pfeiffer fighting this first main event on February 10th against Jack Kerbanson, the Volcanovsky-Tuporia, UFC 298 card in Anaheim, and Khalil Roundtree not fighting Azamat and Mersakhanov this Saturday, which would have made UFC Austin just a little bit better. But instead, it's going to take place December 9th next Saturday, UFC Shang Vegas, and stepping into fight Kalil-Roundtree will be Anthony Lionheart Smith, Jed. Which one of these announcements intrigues you the most?

So I think the Anthony Smith one probably is like the correct answer. I had to take Joe Pfeiffer headlining a fight card because, I mean, we're just going mask off with what the UFC is now, aren't we? Just, hey, Joe Piper, you're not supposed, like you, I like Joe Piper. I support Joe Piper as a prospect and a guy who's going to be around and make noise. but like, really, this is the time that we got to be like Joe Pfeiffer. Joe Pfeiffer still doesn't have a Wiki page and they're going to have this man headline of fighting a card because it's in the apex and it doesn't matter.

It is purely, hey, we need bodies and Jackermanston has a number and that's enough. Joe, we did it with Abis Magamatov. Surely we can do it with Joe Pfe. Like, it'll be fine. So to me, that was the one that stuck out. the most, I think, you know, the Anthony Smith one probably has a little more meat on the bone there. But it was just very telling to me that like normally Joe Pfeiffer would be a guy who's getting a co-main event and a fight night card, right? Like he's like a real fight night card, like a UFC Austin or whatever, not a, you know, an apex card.

It would have been fine. But, you know, he's coming off a victory over Abdul Razak al-Hasan. Is that like is that the spot that we're like yeah now is the time? No, I think he should be moved elsewhere, but that's not the name of the game anymore. The name of the game is 42 or is it 46 events a year? I think it's 42. But it's 42 plus events a year on ESPN Plus because that's how we get our $200 million per year carry and good enough to stock up an Apex main event. So that's the one that jumped out the most.

Were you with him, Shaheen? Was it the Joe Piper announcement or was there something else that stood out to you? I mean, I guess realistically, it should probably be the Anthony Smith one. But in good faith, I can't pick that because along with that announcement came the news that that's now moved to like a 10 p.m. Eastern start time main card. And if you look at that card, it does not deserve your attention at a 10 p.m. Eastern main card start time. And so that's just going to be a really rough watch all day. That's going to be a long watch. So I can't in good conscience pick that fight.

Ultimately, it has to be the Joe Pfeiffer one. But just because I feel like I am higher on Joe Pfefer than maybe Jed is, Jed's been a little slow to maybe join this bandwagon. I've been intrigued by him. And strictly for the one fact that the dude is mean. And you can, they're like, there's a difference between someone who's purely mean in the cage, who does things with very mean intentions, and then someone who's just good at fighting. I'm always intrigued with the guys who just slow with mean intentions, who just like to bully.

in there and I'm curious to see how far this can go. I mean, obviously it seems like the UFC's very, very, very behind Joe Piper. I understand why. He has a very crazy, relatively unique story, somewhat inspirational. He's good on the mic one way or another. Like maybe he's not your flavor because he certainly does resort to a lot of the same of the haters and the disrespectors and things like that. I understand if you don't like that and Jed particularly doesn't like that,

but he is good on the mic. He can tell a compelling story and he knows how to sell a fight. And the Jack Hermanson one feels like a person. perfect sort of matchmaking too, right? Like that is UFC special of just like, hey, what's somebody who's kind of like a middling middleweight who's maybe a little bit past it but does have a number that this guy can take and sort of vault himself up the rankings? That's exactly what we're looking at here.

I don't know if main event spot is, I mean, we've had worst main events, I guess, this year. That's just what this is. The apex cards are that level at this point. They clearly want to push him. So give them your first main event, low stakes main event in that sense where everyone's, you know, it's not a paper view or a big UFC Austin or something like that. So I'm intrigued by the Joe Piper one. I wish it wasn't a main event by I understand why.

But ultimately, I guess I have to agree with Jed. All right, one last thing. Just stop putting him in the apex. Like if you believe in this dude, like four of his last five fights have been the apex. It's just, I mean, but who's going to care? But you see what they're doing, right? But you see what they're doing, right? Like give this guy a main event.

So he essentially has the main event carry the whole week of doing all the interviews and doing all the press and everything. But ultimately, it's not a high stakes main event. It's in the apex. It's in a familiar confines. They're putting them in the best possible situation for him to succeed in that first main event slot. It's very apparent what they're doing. Like, I get it. I don't like it, but I get it.

Dude, it's, I think that fight card's going to be terrible. Sure. Yeah, sure. She's like And you're gonna watch it And you're gonna watch it Because you have to I watch all of them

Partly because I have to And also because I have a problem machine That's I'm not the talking about You all you are You actually are You are They've got me already

I'm locked in They might load that one up I hope so I mean they won't Because it's an apex card It's an apex card So you know by definition They will not load it

an apex card. It will have one other fight of value of meaning and then it will have a bunch of contender series contracts. Like that's realistically what it will be. I mean, what if they don't do it at the apex? What if they move it? It is Super Bowl weekend, which is in Las Vegas this year. You would think that they would try to do something cool. But we'll see what happens. One last thing I wanted to touch on because I found this pretty interesting. I was asked about this on heck of morning and I was like, what the hell are you talking about? This doesn't make any sense to me. but more and more people are talking about this. Shaheen, I'll start with you. Robert Whitaker's coach teasing that he's fighting Paulo Costa at UFC 299. Robert Whitaker also teasing this on Instagram as well,

basically saying to the aspect of, oh, third times the charm, Whitaker tagging Paulo and posts and all of that. I don't know if they're fishing for a fight or this is what's actually going to happen. But your thoughts on Whitaker versus Costa potentially being made And is this the right fight for Paula Costa? Or should they, the UFC try to get the Shemaiah fight? Or do you think Shemaiah will just kind of be benched until we figure out what happens with Strickland versus DDP? I think what the latter of what you said is probably correct.

Also, he is healing from an injury as well. I don't hate the Whitaker Costa fight. I just want to see Costa back in the mix, frankly. Like, you give me a meaningful fight with Palo Costa and the way he's been able to build his brand while not really fighting at all has been very interesting. I'm in on it. That to me is intriguing. Whatever this next stage of Robert Whitaker is going to be of him trying to do this last run to the title, especially in this wide open division now where he could very realistically capture the title again with Israel out. I'm very intrigued.

If that's the fight, I love it. What do you think, Chad? You like this one? That's fine. I still prefer Whitaker Usman. I think I said that right after Usman fought. And I was like, yeah, just do that. It makes the most sense because you, Costa Chimaev.

I think, like Shaheen said, and like you said, I think they probably are just going to sit on Shemayev and see what happens with DDP Strickland and maybe he just jumps in. But I would prefer that fight. I do kind of still think Chimai should have it. But it's like this is a okay. I mean, this is a fight that has almost happened seven times or whatever at this point. It'd be nice to have that closure. It's top guys. One of the few dudes Whittaker hasn't faced already at kind of the.

upper end of the weight class. So if ultimately this is what happens, I would not be opposed to it. I still would prefer the Kamar Usman fight. Just I think that fight is more intriguing to me for whatever reason. The winner of that fight is at most one fight away from challenging for the belt.

The cost of fight? In this stage, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Eard of DDP beats Strickland and Whitaker wins. I think they'll just run that one back. I mean,

No, if Whitaker win Or in the beach, Gickland, I think he's That may be complicated. Yeah. I think he's a win away. Middleweight's fun, huh? Middleweight's pretty fun. It's very fun.

Joe Pfeer getting the main event. Maybe Icram Alaskaroff getting a nice run in 2024. He's going to be a super fascinating addition to this division. So we'll see what happens. Brandon Allen, yes. Brandon Allen's been on a nice run. We'll see what happens with Roman Delizze and Naserdine Imova.

Lots happening at 185. Lots happening on BTL. The point for round four goes to be Jedmishu. Jedmishu gets it's two to two. It's four to four to four. The co-leader. Yeah, it's four to four. And now you can vote in the chat.

Only you. Dead heat. The viewing audience have the power. You have the power to decide which one of these co-leaders will just inch away and get the victory here. Time for the knock-or route. One question will decide at all.

60 seconds for each individual to answer the question. Once that is done, you will vote. I'll waste a few seconds while you do that, and then we'll announce the winner. So, Jed, in your attorney haircut, I cannot get that comment out of my brain. What are we doing here?

What's the eight ball telling you to do? You're going first? You're going second? I forgot. We have the eight ball. It's still right here. So let's ask her, magic eight ball. Should I go first?

Answer. Yes. So according to the magic eight ball, we got to go first. That's the first like, you know, assertive answer. It wasn't like asking it in a minute or what? Ask again tomorrow and you'll get your answer. So, Jed, last week it was just you and I shooting the breeze and it was obviously Thanksgiving day is that episode dropped on the podcast network. We talked about what we were thankful for, but now Thanksgiving is over.

We are officially in the holiday season. and as you were growing up, you probably had a holiday wish list of some kind. So, Jed, what does your holiday wish list look like for mixed martial arts? I don't want the whole list. What's the top thing? What's the big wish for your holiday wish list in the sport of MMA or combat sports in general? One minute on the clock.

Go. Oh, man. This is such a good question because I got my wish this year, Mike. My one wish, and you all know all year long, was that we could be done with Alexander Volcanovsky, the lightweight. And we're done now. Islam gave me that wish. It was terrific, very, very pleased with it. So I'm a man who already has everything in the world. But if I could get one more thing, right? If I could have one more thing, it's, I think I got to stay true to form. I got to go for, you know, the kind of, the kind of thing I've built. my identity around.

And it's this. I want, I need Justin Gachie to win a true UFC title. I need him to pull off the upset of Islamakachov when that happens because he's given so much to my life, so much happiness. I don't want this to be a Carlos Condit situation where he only ever is interim champion when we're doing the damn on him. I need Justin Gachie to win the lightweight belt this year.

I love how you just. just talked and talked and talked until something totally wasted your brain. It was incredible. I mean, it was incredible. Watching the gears in your brain flow. I don't know what you guys are talking about. 45 seconds of vamping. 45 seconds of vamping.

I actually see your eyes open slightly wide when you had the thing you were actually going to answer with and you did a great job. This is all planned. I think the magic eight ball stirred you wrong. Shaheen got a chance to think about this one. So I think he's in the more strategic position. Holiday Wishless, Shahim, what tops it for the wonderful world of mixed martial arts? And go. That was just a masterclass by Jed there.

I have two answers for this. One, that's a very personal answer to me. It's very on brand. And one that I am stunned that Jed just left on the table because it was the most on brand Jed Mishu answer ever. First one, Tony Ferguson. God damn it. Tony Ferguson, please just do it for me.

Oh my God. I've been the Tony Ferguson. guy in the media for like 10 years at this point. Can you just please beat Patty Pimbleau and then right off into the sunset? That's the perfect retirement. Get the one. Get the one over the guy that like kind of is disliked at this point, that the whole sport has kind of turned against in a way.

No one wants to see you lose to Patty Pimble. Please just win. Dial the clock back one more time. Get a classic Tony Ferguson finish. And then right off in the sunset. And also Jed, it was right there for you. He asked you, what do you want? Your answer if you're Jedmishu, you want John Jones to stop being a coward.

You want you. John Jones to take the fight. You want John Jones to prove that he's the best heavyweight in the damn world. That was your answer. It should have been your answer to it. It wouldn't have the whole damn show which didn't get there. Wow. Vote for Shaheen. I'm so upset. It was right there for you. You had one whole man to cut that promo. You're obviously correct. Wow. I've never been shocked. It's a shocking moment and I'm shocked. It took like Shaheen to say, I can't believe you whiffed on this. Then I was like, oh, yeah.

As soon as he said it, I was like, oh, yeah, which is even worse because I, like, mentally made a note coming into the episode. I was like, all right, when I get my 30 seconds after I win, we're just going to go back to the well because it's a great well to draw from. And then, yeah, vote for Shane. Sheen's Victor. That was, so I'm ashamed. I, you deserve better.

Viewers, you deserve better. and I'm going to learn from this. I'm going to grow from this. But yeah, that was shameful. I feel like it's foreshadowing to the Georgia post-game press conference on Saturday. After Shaquine, you just made Georgia lose, Jed. It's on you. I know, dude.

It's a tie game. Georgia tries to kick the field goal. They come up short. But then the intelligent Alabama special teamer catches the field goal. and runs it back for a touchdown at the end of regulation. We're not having a Bama Auburn life cycle. Yes, it's it. You know, the important thing is George is going to go to that game

because we're not scared. And that's what you do if you're the greatest. You're not afraid. You can't pull it back now. Moments gone, dude. Strike that comment from the record. Strike it from the record. It never happened.

Vote now. Yes, mute, Jed. this is just this is a travesty vote right now cash your votes uh tomorrow busy day i'm not upset i'm just disappointed i'm upset i'm upset vote for shaheen i don't deserve this one uh 10 i mean i would have walked into the winner's circle she's the most casual right there it was right there and i just fumbled it i just fumbled it you sure that's fumbling the bad for for future reference what francis did is not The bag. What I did, that's it. Yes, be like Francis. Don't be like Jed.

Listen to heck of a morning tomorrow at 10 a end. Eastern. I mean, it's true. That's true. This is true. Prime Jim earlier. Prime Jim was like, when Shaheen was like, I got concerns about Jalen Turner. If you're a supporter of me, you need to have concerns.

Like, I'm not sure what's going on with this guy at this point. There's so much to think about right now. We'll talk more UFC Austin and BKFC on the preview show tomorrow, 1 p.m. Eastern, and then Saturday we'll just get to have all sorts of fun. Maybe more fun than you had bargained for, but stay tuned to the YouTube channel, and we will let you know what's going down. Casey, come on in. How are we doing?

How's the voting? Do we have a winner? Do we need more time? Do I need to stall? Just close the point. Stahl just a little bit more. It's a very close vote. It's a very close vote.

I need a few more votes. It shouldn't be. It's very close. It's very close. A little bit more stall. The winner is Shaheen. We need a little more stalling. Yes.

We're at least, is this like an election? Can I, can I notify of my withdrawal from the run? Is that not? Like to give my concession speech now? I'd like to thank sheehanes running a hard fought campaign. Thanks to my support.

I wouldn't thank anybody. I would just denigrate myself. I got the dark side. I'm being a big stupid idiot. Yeah, the dark side lawyer haircut. Everything was going for you. I'm going to shave my head. Oh.

This is shameful. Don't threaten me with a good time. Whoa. All right. All right. Closing the poll. The minute you said it, Shaheen, I was like, God, damn. What a whiff.

Co-winners? All that vamping. I couldn't get to the one answer I needed. I'm going to wait to the very last second that closes poll. All right, here we go. Is there a draw option? The three options today. We had three categories for your winner.

Co-winners. Jed? Shaheen. Yes. Co-winners of BTO, the co-leaders of BTL. I would accept co-winners because it's wrong. The co-leaders of BTL. But, unfortunately, the co-leaders of BTL only ended up with 20.

99% of the vote. Come on. But you're a winner right now with... Oh, this is outrageous. I saw all this develop. You waited. You waited. 37% of the vote is...

I can't believe it's not really like saying this. You should overrule this, Casey. You waited too long. I want to. I want to. Wait it too long. You're the man. You're the judge. You do whatever you want.

You do whatever you want, Casey. This is your show. You do whatever. you want. The winner and screw the voters is Shaheen Ashadi.

Yes! You win, Shaheen, you win. This is how democracy dies, by the way. There's been a coup. Oh, my God. Did Shah have, like, a pretty sizable lead

and then Jed just inch to crawl his way back into it? Right. That's exactly what happened. I don't know. I don't know how it happened. But somehow, there was some. Chaos merchants.

Casey waited long enough to where the pity vote and the, I want to see what happens if the chaos vote happens, overtook it. I watched it happen in real time. Can we, Shaheen, can we both agree that, well, I definitely did not win. The actual winner should have been co-leaders. Yes. I don't know who voted for something that wasn't co-leaders, but you're not my kind of people, I thought co-leaders was going to dominate till Jed fumbled the bag.

Jed fumbled the bag. And 49% of you are Jed's people. 29% of you are Jed's people. Cheyenne, congratulations on the victory. What would you like to say to the people? And to Casey for giving you the victory. Casey, I love you so much. You are a dear friend.

You made the wise call. You made the right call. We all know it. It's fine. But yeah, that was a good time. I'm always happy to show up. And all in just Jed, I'm a Georgia boy. I was born in Atlanta.

I hope Georgia does it because God, I hate Alabama. God, I fucking hate him. Everyone does. We're riding this really perfect wave of like, nobody hates us yet. Like,

it's common. If this keeps up for, for a couple of years, yeah. Yeah, but even three in a row, everyone's just like dynasty. It's cool.

It's like, it's got to happen for another couple years after that. We're still like always in the playoffs or whatever. That's coming. I'm aware. But for now, nobody hates us, and everyone still just hates me. So it's great. We're in a real sweet spot.

I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can. Well, best of luck to Bulldogs Nation. Hit the music, Casey. We're done. Appreciate you all. I feel like a co-leader myself after the show. I think we're all co-leaders. We're all co-people, if we're being honest.

We're all together on this journey of chaos and fire and brimstone. That is the mixed martial arts world. We'll be back next week to recap all the craziness from this past weekend. And maybe we'll spend an hour on UFC Shang Vegas with Chris Gutierrez and Songhidong, getting ready to battle for potential of five rounds. For Shaheen, for Jed, for Casey on the Ones and Tuesday. I'm iconic voice special in takes you home. Back next week on Mike Heck, Between the Links.

Good night, everybody. Love y'all. Don't be scared, John. This has been Between the Links, an MMATING production on the Vox Media Network. Thank you.