MMA Fighting - BTL | Paddy Pimblett & Molly McCann Show, Khamzat Chimaev, Pena vs. Nunes 2, UFC 277, More

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann’s stars continued to rise at UFC London, but how far can they go? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, Pimblett and McCann’s futures will be discussed following their big finishes this past Saturday. In addition, topics include Khamzat Chimaev’s recent interview on The MMA Hour and his doubts that UFC 279 opponent Nate Diaz will event show up to the fight, the rematch between Julianna Pena and Amanda Nunes this Saturday at UFC 277 and what is at stake for both women outside of the belt, the rest of this weekend’s PPV card on paper, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Shaheen Al-Shatti and UFC featherweight Damon Jackson.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Damon Jackson: @damonbjackson Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Between the Links. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Thank you for joining us. I am Mike Hack, the BTL Champion. We have a fun show this week. A lot going on, as always. Excited to be back in the host chair. Boston Mike gets put away until next time.

Let's get right into this. Let us introduce the panel this week. First, one of the nominees for Journalist of the Year from Fighters Only for the Big Awards later on this year. And he's on my shortlist for Colleague of the Year. From MFAFighting.com, the deputy editor, Mr. Shot al-Shoddy. Hello, sir. Welcome back to the program, my man.

What is up, my man? And it is, it's always good to be here. I'm happy to be here until I popped on and all of a sudden I see who I'm facing and now I just feel like I'm kind of a sacrificial lamb. But I'm here for it. I'm here for it. Let's do this. Yes.

And that man is a surging featherweight from the ultimate fighting championship. He's surging up the ranks. Right now he is scheduled from what I understand for a fight against Pat Sabatini on September 17th. But maybe he could get in there a little bit sooner. say hello. Live from the treadmill. Mr. Damon Jackson, how are you, sir? And why are you on the treadmill for this program?

Why are you making history right now? I'm doing good, man. But I'm actually, I'm game playing for someone to fall out for this weekend. So there's only two fights at 55. And I love to match up with all of them. So I would love to step in short notice and, you know, be that guy that steps in. Shaheen, how do you feel about this?

He's kind of. How can I compete? Is this a man of many talents? He's going to kick my ass while on the treadmill. Like, I'm, I'm here to watch this. This is fantastic. This is amazing stuff. I'm very excited for this matchup.

Let's get into this thing. It has been a chaotic day. Let's start with a chaotic card from this past Saturday. Let's talk about the big story from this past Saturday. UFC London, the main event ended in an unfortunate way. The prelims were. not all that exciting. It was very hard for this card to live up to what we saw in March in London, but UFC put on their, they did their best. This card was a card. And it was the Patty Pimblein

and Molly McCann Show once again. These two just continue to win. They continue to rise and they continue to just get a whole bunch of fanfare and attention through all of this. So Shaheen, I will begin with you, my man. What have you made of this sort of meteoric rise of both of these fighters, not just individually, but together on the same card, kind of going hand in hand with one another. I see the lower third, the Patty and Molly show, right? It feels like that's sort of what we came out of this with. UFC London, the first time around was an all-around spectacular.

It might still be the event of the year, at least it's top two up there. You come away from the first UFC London show. There's lots of takeaways. There's lots of stars. This past one, I mean, this card, it wasn't the best card. It dragged a little bit in places, and the main event was very disappointing with the way it ended but we came out of it with patty pimblen and once again mollie mccann sort of shining in this moment and we talk about owning the moments in this sport they they completely own this moment and

i think they actually are starting to slowly change some people's opinions and perspectives a little bit i mean just even we we've talked about it all week but patty pimblink going out there and having you know his one his really wonderful post-fight message about mental health and the importance of talking to people about your struggles and things like that like it feels like what they were able to do this past weekend really resonated with a lot of people. And you know, you look at sort of their places in the division. I don't know that we're talking about, at least for Patty, you know, him in title contention anytime soon.

He's still very far down the line. But he did come away from it. I think, again, changing some hearts and minds. It feels like we are seeing less criticism of Patty and more just people welcoming and enjoying this story rather than trying to poke holes in it, which is definitely something. And I'm sure, you know, this next time around, it seems like the UFC is going to be targeting a big pay-per-view show for them or at least some type of business. big, maybe main event or we'll see how it plays out.

But I mean, it certainly was the Patty and Molly show this past weekend. And that's through through no fault of, you know, Curtis Blades or anything like that. But that's just the way it turned out. Damon, as a fighter on the roster, guy trying to get fights and rise up these divisions, heck, you're trying to get in there this Saturday. What have you made of watching these two and the momentum that they've garnered this year? Man, like, you know, the energy is real with both of them. You know, they always bring a fight no matter what.

They're both exciting. Like before the fight and during the fight, they're kind of crazy. You know, Patty definitely has to work on his skills because, you know, he can't keep getting dropped with whenever he fights these guys. And so they'll matching him up with another grapple like that was a good move on the UFC. I hope they take care of him because he definitely does have some special, like, energy that not a lot of people have. So, you know, I think that goes a long ways. And that Molly girl, she's legit. You know, I love her media president.

It's pretty good. It's pretty funny to watch because I don't really get into a whole lot. But she's definitely animated and she's backing it up, man. She's a that the energy is crazy and you know, she's got the rock the rock watching her, you know, talking about the elbow being back and forth. So I think that I think both of those both of them have they have something that not a lot of people have and they have the ability to bring in that hype and you know, during the fight. That car, you know, they build up these fights and it seems like every. Every time they do a big buildup on a fight, it's like somehow, some way you'll get let down as a fan. So I think it's the card that they don't talk a lot about. Those are going to be the best card because no one really expects it because like when you expect everyone to show up, they're not going to show up.

So hopefully they hopefully the UFC and everybody else learns from that, the fans to not get so hyped up for the fights and just just to be present and watch them because, you know, some of these guys in the undercard put on a decent show. you know it's just like it's hard to get into a fight when you expect it to go a certain way and it doesn't yeah probably props to jsp great performance from him props nathaniel wood and charles rosa they put on a hell of a fight but you know coming out of it and all week it's been the patty and molly show so let me ask you this damon like higher ceiling between the two like if you could invest on the career ceilings not like the superstar ceiling not like you know who's going to make the most money and get the most sponsorships type of ceiling, but the actual, this person can go on a run,

get to the top 15, top 10, top five, fight for the title, maybe win the belt. Who would you invest in? Would you invest in Patty or did you invest in Molly? I think Molly gets there quicker. I think that, you know, that division, it's just a little different when we talk to in men's and women's divisions. There's just not as many fighters.

And she actually has some pretty legit talent there on the feet. She's crazy. She's crazy enough to get hit, too. So I think that Patty needs to, you know, figure out a way to get hit and not get hurt or to not get hit and taking people down, you know, a little bit cleaner. I think Kim coming out swinging crazy. When you're talking about having another man across the cage,

the weighs, you know, 185 or, you know, 190. Some of these light weights are huge. So you've got another guy coming across the cage swinging like that. You can't go in there crazy. So hopefully, you know, hopefully he, you know, grows up a little bit and learns from that bit. I hope they keep their same energy because they definitely aren't entertaining.

What do you think, Sean? Because Patty is becoming a star, and we've seen this before. We've seen fighters come in. Like this reminds you a lot of Connor in a lot of ways, where every time Connor Wado was like, eh, this guy's not that good,

eh, nice win, he's a star, but he's never going to fight for the title. And all of a sudden, Connor wins one title. And then wins a second title. And we were like, oh, this is we're all wrong about this guy. but do you agree with him? Like, do you feel like Molly is the guy you'd invest,

or the gal you would invest in, the fighter you would invest in? Or do you think the UFC could just properly match up Patty and just keep building him up? Maybe get to a title fight, maybe get to a top five fight, maybe get to a contender fight sooner than a lot of people think. I mean, I would push back a little bit on the Connor comparisons

just because, I mean, to me, they feel very different, right? When Connor McGregor was coming up, he was blowing people away. Like, he was just getting these quick, quick knockouts, and he wasn't showing a lot of holes in deficiencies in his game. Paddy's getting hurt in most of these fights. I think Damon would agree with that. Like, there's very obvious routes to in guys in the UFC right now that would beat Patty.

I don't know that anybody's really clamoring for Patty to fight for the title anytime soon. It feels like he still has a long, long way to go. And even if the UFC wanted to manufacture some sort of road, that division is just unbelievable, right? That's the deepest division in the entire sport, I think, at some point. they would they would struggle to sort of get patty where he is whereas dame was 100% right that women's flyweight division right now is really grasping for someone to challenge uh valentina shepchenko that will compel people i mean talia santos just did a phenomenal job but it doesn't seem like they're going to run that back and it seems like valentina wants to keep it going so if she needs a big name

i think it's very conceivable that mollie could be one or two flights away from being that person where the ufc just tries to propel her into that spot and also i do want to i want to ask Damon something because his answer he said previously really interested me and I'm just curious man when you're in that spot and you're on on a card like a London card or something like that and you can feel sort of the momentum and the feeling within the building or the card do you feel that as a fighter like the momentum building within an arena or like a card of like sort of hey this was really exciting this was really exciting like I can feed off of that energy or is it all such a slowly focused thing no it definitely is I mean you you can't help me hear the

crowd like you know like my last fight was so frustrating because you know I just didn't have a good good uh good hydration I had a good weight cut but I didn't have a good rehydration and I held the kid down uh the whole fight and I'm just thinking in my head like thinking that all these people are going to talk shit about the fact that I didn't do anything and that I was just holding him down and like saying all this stuff so I get in my head during the fight I'm thinking of the fans thinking of how I'm not putting on a show and how this isn't going to give me a top 15 opponent like I was literally thinking that while I had his back. And so, you know, you definitely, you have to think that way or you're not going to get paid what you want. And, you know, you got to go up there and put

on a show every time because at the end of the day, this is entertainment. I know you're out there competing and, you know, you want to prove yourself, you know, toughness, whatever. But it's like, at the end of the day, you're there for people's entertainment. Like, people are paying to watch you fight someone. So that's what they want to see. And I think that going back to the Patty and, you know, Molly, I think that they both have the entertainment value. where they can talk smack and they go out there and they put on a good show. So I think both of them will get built up the right way. I don't think the UFC is going to try to like fast track them in and like make them fight the toughest fights.

But, you know, people, the fans aren't going to argue so much whenever you got guys out there putting on exciting fights. If somehow some way they get put in the top 15 and you don't know, you know, you don't know how they got there. It's just kind of like I think that the value goes a long ways with the fans when they're cheering and they're making noise. So that's why it's frustrating to always fight at the apex, because this is like my, my fifth or six fight at the apex. And it's a great place to cut weight, great place to stay. But like, I want some fans, man. I wanted my next fight to be in Dallas. So that's why I'm cut way right now.

So I would just, I would, I would, I would, I'll fight up and way class, down, whatever. Maybe you'll get your wish. Maybe you'll get your wish this week. Hey. Yeah, I hope. So the reason I asked more so the Patty question about sort of building him up, because the biggest question all week, Sean, and you've heard it. We've gone back and forth like in our Slack channels. We had a whole heck of a morning basically based on this.

As far as matchmaking for Patty now, because we've heard, like I have personally heard everything from Ludovic Klein who won on the same card to my suggestion on Onsenaxon was Jamie Malarkey. Bobby Green's a popular one. Jim Miller's a popular one. And out of nowhere, the most intriguing selection of all has been Tony Ferguson, Sean. A lot of people are, the voting on this was unbelievable. I could not believe how close this was. I think it ended as a 50-50 tie. And the question was, does Patty Pimlet versus Tony Ferguson make sense right now?

And it was a 50-50 tie with almost like a thousand votes. It was insane. So your thoughts on that. And I'm sure you're not going that route. But if you have the magic pencil, how are we doing? doing this? How are you doing this now? My thoughts on that are people are insane. That's a ridiculous thing to call for. First of all, a couple of things. First of all, the disrespect to Tony Ferguson is just out of control at this point. Like, this man's a legitimate legend in this game. Like, we got

a respect with this guy as accomplished. And like, he, we just saw him against Michael Chandler. Like, sure, he got knocked out in the second round. But in the first round, he looked like vintage Tony for a few moments there. Like, he still might have some left into him to just assume that Patty is just going to walk through Tony when that's like by far the like without measure the largest up like upward climb and like level of opponent that he has faced and straight at the schedule like that's absurd to me but also like let's play that out right like let's play say that you book that fight and somehow patty pimblit beats tony ferguson which i absolutely do not think what happened again that's disrespectful as hell with tony ferguson in my eyes but let's say it happened what the hell do you do

then what are you you just going to throw patty pimbled against like the tuesday top five dogs at 155 and then that's the end of the show like come on man like at that point you're sort of trapped within an area of your own design where patty pimble is suddenly this guy in the top 10 at 155 and i think a lot of people would would agree that he probably doesn't belong there right now and really doesn't need to be taking those kind of fights so it's it's a stupid stupid idea on a lot of levels in my eyes and i'm sure what the ufc will do as well is you continue to sort of do a very gradual and slow escalation where you put him in these big spots you give him matchups that may be favorable grappling type of matchups,

guys who are not going to punch his lights out and take advantage of some defensive deficiencies that might be there right now. And you sort of play this out as long as you can until the fervor becomes too much to where, okay, we need to feed this guy someone in the top 15 and start seeing whether he's ready for this type of challenge.

What do you think, Damon? Like if you were, if they're like, hey, Damon, we're going to give you this fight in Dallas on Saturday. You could fight in Dallas, but you have to matchmake for Patty Pimbled in exchange. How are you matchmaking for him? I 100% I think he's got too much

potential to just be thrown in the mix of top five like there's those guys in top five at 155 I mean that's just a whole different level where you know he's not ready for that and I think that he is skilled but you know it only goes so far when you got those guys that are you know

well rounded and you know 30 fights in their pro career you can't be matched up with you know Patty with his one dimensional style I think that he has the potential to be there but he's I had to put some work in for sure. But if I'm getting with Tony, that's ridiculous.

Thank you. Thank you. Finally some sense on this program. Jesus Christ. This is ridiculous hearing this stuff. Yeah, Jamie Malarky is the correct answer. That's a nice step up. You know, guy you could crack a little bit, yeah.

But still, I think rankings-wise, like, they're right around the same. Patty's, like, bigger than rankings right now. He's bigger than titles. He's bigger than top 15 opponents. Like, he's just your job. is to put him out there to win. That's it. Put him in front of a crowd that will appreciate him and then let him win and let the crowd go crazy. He dances around. Molly drinks a bunch of howlerhead. That's what you want. That's what you want. So we'll see what happens. I can't believe how many

people feel like Tony Ferguson is the right fight, but I digress. Let us move on to round number two. The point for round number one goes to, I mean, how can I not give it to the man cutting weight right now? I have to. Absolutely. It is day. Damon Jackson. I almost said... I know we were competing. Oh, well. This makes me even more excited.

Let's go. Oh, see? There we go. There we go. Welcome to the program. Doom. Ah, there we go. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list?

Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $3999. How could I resist? This luxurious. will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices? Could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Well, let's move forward with one of the other big stories over the last couple of weeks. We found out a couple weeks ago we talked about

was a big part of the show last week that Nathan Diaz has his final fight on the books. He's going to be fighting Hamzaa T. Shamiyev in the main event of UFC 279, September 10th, T-Mobile arena. And we heard from Nate on the MMA hour a couple of weeks ago. It was just a bonus episode. Nate is like a unicorn. And when he appears, you have to take pictures and you have to make sure you document this. Then we got Hamzaa Shamiyev on the MMA hour on Monday.

It was something that happened out of nowhere. Ariel recorded it on Sunday. It appeared on Monday. And it was a very interesting interview from a guy that doesn't do a whole lot of interviews. So, Sean, I'm curious for a number of reasons, just because I never really got your thoughts on the conversation itself. During that interview, when it was over, what were your biggest takeaways from it? Whether it be Nate or the Gilbert Burns stuff or his thoughts about titles, why he took the Nate fight, his respect he had for Nate. What were your biggest takeaways?

You're saying from the Hamzad interview? Yeah. I mean, I thought it was just interesting to sort of see his perspective on this, because for the most part, all we've seen is Nate. We've heard from Nate quite a bit. This has been a very long and bizarre saga with Nate. And I think where we landed on it is a very, I don't know, strange place, right? Like, I think this is just a very weird matchup when you look at it on its face. The odds sort of tell the story.

I think I don't know what the odds are currently, but Nate is a giant, massive underdog in this. And I think Dan Hardy actually put it really well on the MMR this week when he, when he, when he, he called this an assassination attempt and said, you know, somebody should be pressing charges for this. Because all of it feels very bizarre to me. I understand sort of, I guess, what the UFC wants to do with this. But the fact that Nate Diaz has sort of turned into this gatekeeper of a 170 pound title shot is just one of the strangest things to me that I have seen over the last couple years. Because you look at every person that Nate Diaz has fought over the last few years, every single one of them has gotten a welterweight title shot afterwards, right? Leon Edwards, Jorge Mazurl, now probably Hamzat Shemiah, has been.

well, it's one of the deeper divisions in the entire sport. You have tons of talent there at 170, and it's sort of languishing in a place where it's not really getting moving in the way that we would expect because of situations like this. So that whole part of this is very strange to me. I feel like Nate Diaz is a legitimate legend of the game, who has done a lot for the UFC, who has put in a lot of time with the UFC, who has really contributed a lot to sort of the growth of the lightweight division and just generally the sport as a whole over the last 10 years. And he deserves better than to sort of be pushed into this type of matchup on the way out. I know people will say that he called for this matchup, but sure, he also called for Dustin

Porre. He called for Vicente Luca. He called for a lot of other things, too. And eventually he just knew that this was the one they wanted to give him. So just to give me the damn fight so I can get out of here. So that part of it was strange. But I did, it was interesting to hear from Hamza. I mean, that to me was one of the more relaxed Hamza at Shamaia of interviews I've ever seen. It was sort of, you know, at his own pace. And it's fun to hear his type of thoughts on this. In particular, I thought it was really cool to hear him sort of wax poetic about Alexander Gustafin as well. That's been lost among all the big headlines with this. But it's cool to sort of hear the respect he has for a guy like Alexander Gustafson,

and who's in a tough spot in his career and all of it. I don't know. I really enjoyed the interview. And I thought, you know, it's just fun to hear from Hamzaad a little bit. Damon, not sure if you watch the interview, but that's okay. We'll work around it if you didn't. But obviously, I wanted to get your thoughts on just the matchmaking itself, the fact that right now you're scheduled to fight a week after that.

But one thing that Hamzat said that made a lot of headlines and got a lot of people's attention is he doesn't even think Nate's going to show up to this fight. Hamzad is going to prepare to fight September 10th. He hopes it's Nate, but he's preparing for it not to be Nate Diaz, which I think in 2022, all fighters should kind of think about it, at least in some way like that. But your thoughts on the matchup and that's just your thoughts on Hamzat saying that he doesn't even think Nate's going to show up September 10th. Hey, every time I say that about my parents, they don't show up. I know that Pat, Pat Chaptian is going to show up. I know he's going to be ready to go. But, you know, I just think about it.

I'm like, you don't really know what happens behind the closed doors with UFC and with Nate and all the stuff. Like, you know, Nate's very public with all of his, like, issues with them. But you don't know how true it is. Like, he could be calling out Dustin Portier. And then when they give him a contract, he says no, you know, and you don't know if it's a money issue or if you don't know it's a matchup issue. you or what. I think this is kind of like one of the scenes where, you know, they're pressing this on him so hard. And I believe that his contract, once it gets to a certain point, like the length of it, he could be out. So he could very easily get to this fight and then pull out and just wait

for the very end of his career and just go out that way. Because I think that this matchup is not, it's not a good matchup for him. I, you know, I would never say you can count either one of the Diaz brothers out just because of what they've done. but it's the next level of a different generation and with the way that he wrestles and the way that he controls people. And, you know, just seeing what he did with Gilbert Burns. Like, Gilbert Burns is, like,

one of the toughest guys there in that division. And, you know, he goes out there and has, like, an absolute war with him. That was, like, his fourth fight in the UFC or fifth fight, whatever. And, you know, like, you don't get to, you don't see a lot of guys like that that can just hold their own with, you know,

Gilbert's, you know, one of the top three, top four best guys. And to see him go out there. and put it on him like that was impressive. And I think that his wrestling against Nate's, even Nate does have some jiu-jitsu, but I wouldn't, you know, I go with a lot of black belts in jih Tzu,

and I think just wrestling alone controls a lot of really good jih Tzu guys. So I can see Humsai going out there and just be an absolute dog on top and controlling him on the feet, on the ground, whatever. And then once that starts happening, then, you know, he might let loose and throw some, you know, throw some hands.

and, you know, catch Nate. And I know that Nate's never been, or maybe just once he got hurt. And maybe got knocked out one time, a long time ago. I forget who it was. Josh Thompson, yeah. Yeah, Josh Thompson. Yeah, that was the only fight that ever saw Nate, you know, get hurt like that. So I think that he definitely has a chin.

But, you know, it's just like it sucks seeing him match up like this because he definitely deserves kind of like a floater for his last fight with UFC. I don't know what the issues are, though, with him and the UFC. But they've got to be something. with money. I don't really know. But Nate brings a lot of attention, but you know, he hasn't really put together a winning streak in years.

I mean, it's been forever. He always, like, he wins or loses, and it's just like, who knows, man. But he talks a lot of smack. I think the U.S.C. is just kind of calling his bluff. And I think that he's going to, you know, walk into this fight and then maybe at the end pull out and just finish out his contract with the time

period, not the actual fights. So I think that's what happens. Interesting. I have no idea how that works and if that could even happen. But this, that's why it's so, this whole thing is so interesting between now and September 10th is just going to be real fascinating. But, uh, Sean, I'm looking at this card right now. They ain't much home to write home about.

Like, I mean, listen, it's, there's some good fights. There's, I don't want to dog anybody in particular, but this thing is at least missing a co-main event. And this card is going to do well no matter what. If they just add like four more fights exactly like this, it's still going to do well. These two guys are stars, and even those who are complaining about this fight, fans, et cetera, they're going to watch it. They're going to spend $75. They're going to watch it because they want to see what's going to happen.

But it needs some help. This card needs a co-main event, Sean. It really needs one. And it needs it pretty badly if we're being honest. What right now sensibly could fit that slot? Because I've been trying to think and everyone keeps asking me and I literally have no idea. I actually don't think they're going to do much if I'm being real. Because when you say it needs a co-made event, I would.

agree with you, but I would also argue for the UFC. It doesn't. And this is sort of the, the trend we've seen over the last couple of years with Connor cards, with the Nate Diaz cards as well. Just they're content to let this be a one-fight card. They don't want other people sucking off the paper viewpoints or sucking from, I should say, the paper viewpoints that are going to be offered from this. I mean, like you said, people are going to buy this because it's Nate Diaz, it's Hamza-Shima. Those are two really big names, two of the bigger names in the entire sport. Nate Diaz in particular. And it's going to sell itself. This is a, this is a a trend we've seen over the past few years with these sort of major star cards with a Connor

or a Nate where the UFC's just not going to load the deck like they used to. And that used to be really fun when they would do it, right? We would get these big three title fight cards and Connie, Connor versus Eddie and all this stuff would be on these stack, stack cards. That's really expensive for the UFC. If all these people are getting paper view points off of a card that is going to do very well on pay-per-view, which this one probably will, because I'm sure also just going into it, the narrative of this is Nate Diaz's final UFC fight, all sort of see what's happening with it, the matchup that they gave him, how they're trying to send him out.

On its face, that is a very compelling matchup that you can just sell, or a narrative, I should say that you can sell to regulars. You can sell the casuals of, hey, this guy that you were aware of and that you know about, this is sort of his last run and it's against an all odds type of situation. Like, that'll sell itself and it'll do well. So I don't think the UFC is building this card for fans like us, for, you know, people who fight fans like us who really, you know, follow it and watch every week and that sort of. This is a card for people who are in the broader space who are going to buy it one way or another because they see the names at the top.

I would agree most of the time here, Damon, but even like some of the things you said, like, what if Nate just pulls out fight week or what if Shamiya can't get there? What if something happens? Like, what are we going to do? There's like no contingency in place. There's no backup in place. Like I would think like maybe you just throw in some sort of a top 10 welterweight matchup, like just throw in any two guys. Like find any two waterweights that can get in there and fight. And then if something does happen, we have two decent names in the division.

One could sub in and go from there. But like I have no idea what they're going to do here if they're even going to try to do anything or if they are going to try to maybe do like a Porre or Chandler and try to throw those two guys in there somehow. Like does this need a co-main event or do you think we're going to all stay positive? This fight's going to happen and it's going to do a million pay-per-views and who cares? Yeah, you know, I think that I think that they possibly could, you know, throwing someone else and that would be whatever it would be a big deal but i think that this could be a way for them to kind of stick it to me to make one more time with as far as like him talking smack

about the promotion he'll not being happy with everything uh the low pay per view by is means that he doesn't get as many points and um it could be like one more final straw to the whole thing and i think that uh you know i think a lot of guys need to learn from this because the way the ufc does things like they take care of everyone so well when you like when you look at the whole um fight scene as a whole, you go to any other promotion, you go to any other country, wherever you're at. Like, it doesn't matter. Like, everyone wants to be in the UFC for a reason.

And, you know, you got these, these top-level guys that can bitch and complain about, you know, being in the UFC and they're not paying them enough. It's because, like, you know, these people, they say that they're like, hey, we'll pay you $5 million. The U.S. is only giving you $3 million. But then you go over there and you get that one fight,

and then no one ever watches it. No one ever, you have no more career. Once you leave the UFC, you're done. Like it doesn't matter. I've never seen one person lead to UFC and then be bigger than the UFC. The UFC has branded themselves so well to where, you know, you talk smack about them. You can say whatever you want. They're like at the end of the day, you got to show up and fight.

And these guys that, Nate can talk about smack because he's been in with promotion forever. And he's kind of grown with them. But they've taken care of him. And they've done a lot of really good things for him and for his team and, you know, everything about it. So I don't think it's cool on his end to talk so much smack. and then I don't know on the UFC's in. I don't know how much better they could do it as far as this card. I think that them adding in people is definitely going to build some more excitement.

But it could be a reason for them not to do that. It's because they want the pay-per-b cells to be low for whatever reason. Yeah, I got to ask just real quick. Can I jump in? What mile are you at? Like, where are you out on the mile marker on this treadmill right now? I'm only, I've only done five, six. but I'm about to, so when we get off here, I have, so the way I do it is I cycle.

I do 30 minutes on treadmill and then I do 30 minutes in sauna and then I go 25, 25, 20, 20, and then after that, I just sit in sauna. And so I usually end up doing about an hour on both, an hour and a half on both. So I was just getting warmed up. And I was getting warmed up and I remembered I had Ed at Interimalsport. He texted me and he was like, hey, you got interviewed it too. and I was like, oh, no. So I kind of forgot that I had this.

And then I was like already running. So I was like, I'll just slow down. I'll pick back up when it's over. This is incredible. Ed's the man. Ed's the man. This is ridiculous. Ed cap.

I love it. Head cap, ladies gentlemen. One of my, one of the best PR guys in the business. So we'll see what happens. September 10th, this actually not that far away. If you really think about it,

we're like a month and a half away from this card happening. So this is going to be a lot of fun from now until September 10th. But let's move on to round three. Let's move on to this Saturday. Maybe a card that Damon Jack will be fighting on in a lightweight bout. The point for round two goes to we'll give it to Shaheed Alshadhi just so this could be competitive. But I just the treadmillness, the treadmill and going on. That's a pity point. That's a pity point, Mike Heck. Yeah. I give pity points all the time on this

program. So let's move on. Let's move on to this Saturday. And Damon, I know you are getting ready to hopefully get in there. So I will start with you here. UFC 277. We're in the Metroplex. Dallas, Texas is all going down at the American Airlines Center. The main events for the women's Bannamway title, the rematch from one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Juliana Pena, the champion defending her title against Amanda Nunes. It has been a long time since we have the challenger name underneath Amanda Nunes' name. But that's what's happening this Saturday. Damon, we saw how the first fight went.

People have their views about it. Amanda Nunes said she's been hurt and all these things are happening heading in. Juliana caught her at a good night. Now it's different. New team, no more ATT. we're mixing things up a little bit. What are your intrigue levels for this fight from a fan's perspective?

I mean, after the first fight, those girls, they went back and forth. That was a slugger, man. It was really cool to watch. But, you know, like, I think you can call someone's bluff like that when they've been a champ for so long and they haven't had real challengers, you kind of have that, you know, hope that they're going to win,

but you don't know how they're going to lose. And then someone comes out there and shows you the exact game plan of how to beat them. And I think that that's the same case. I think going into this fight, it's the exact same thing. And I think Pena is going to have even more on the line because she doesn't want to lose that title.

But I don't think this is going to be a situation like Rhonda Rousey where when she lost, she just kept losing and losing and losing. I don't think it's like that. I think that Amanda is more well-rounded than her. And she's not as big of the star, but she's growing, you know, she's got a big name now. But I think that this fight goes similar. I think that she walks her down.

I think that, you know, possibly there's a sub, you know, some sub attempts there, but she's going to have to get on her quick, like she did last time. I think that this fight goes later on in the rounds. I think that she might end up losing that. But, you know, I can see the fight going very similar. Sean, what was so impressive about Giuliana Pena, she literally called her shot the entire time. She said, when I fight her, I'm going to weather the storm. I can take everything she could throw out.

And then after she empties her tank, I'm just going to beat her up and finish her. And she said exactly, like she said it. And then she went out and did it. And it was unbelievable. Like UFC 269 doesn't get enough credit for how good that card was and how big that moment was. But a lot of people feel like lightning, there's no way lightning's going to strike twice. And I've said this all week on heck of the morning. My head says Amanda, but my God is telling me that maybe Juliana does have her number.

I don't really know. But it's an interesting fight to me. The more we get closer to Saturday, the more intrigued I'm getting. Where would you sort of gauge your intrigue levels for this rematch on Saturday night? I agree with you. I think the more, the closer we get to it, the more and more we hear from these women, the more intrigued I get because there's a couple elements to this, right? First is the element of what Damon just said. There's a level of complacency, I would imagine, that sets in if you're Amanda and you haven't lost in such a long time. And you've been so overwhelmingly dominant for so long. And everyone in your life is sort of telling you like, you're the best, you're the champ. You're the greatest of all time, which she is. But at a certain point, you sort of just start believing that and maybe don't work. as hard. I'm not saying she didn't work hard, but it did seem like going into that fight, at least listening to her, that she had injuries in that camp, that she had COVID, and that was just a rough camp just overall. And she came into that fight in a way that she maybe wouldn't

have wanted to, but she just assumed she would be able to push through it and do it because that's sort of how she's done for the last five, six, seven years. There's an element of that, but also, too, I'm really compelled to by this fight because of a comparison that our good friend Jed Mishu made on his past victory article that is, you know, could read right now in MMA fighting. He compared this fight to one that I really hadn't connected it to. But in my head, the more I thought about it, the more made sense. He connected this to Nate Diaz versus Connor McGregor one, right? Where Connor McGregor comes in, he thinks this is going to be an easy time, wings a ton of hard shots, just lets it all go in

the first round, knocks down Nate a bunch of times and thinks, you know, that's going to be the end, we're going to get out of here. Nate Diaz weather is the storm, and then Connor is tired by the time round two comes, and Nate's able to sub them out. That was pretty much what we saw last December. And so coming into this, I do wonder if we're going to see Amanda take a very different approach the same way we saw Connor take a different approach where that second Nate Dia's fight. You saw Connor not loading up on his shots nearly as much taking a much more measured patient approach to fighting Nate on the outside, not trying to gas out his tank, being in it for a 25 minute fight and sort of trying to maybe not point fight, but not nearly be the aggressor

that he was in that first fight and try to play it out to go to the distance. And I wonder if that's what we're going to see from Amanda this timeout, is that level of adjustment of trying to be much more patient, not blowing it all in the first round and just trying to fight from a distance and see if she can just sort of beat Juliana in a technical fight rather than a brawl. And that to me is very compelling because Julianna is someone who is going to come in there and force the fight no matter what, right? She is a bulldog. She is going to press the action regardless.

And the combination of those two styles, if that's what we get, I think that's going to be a classic, classic type of match-up and fight that we're going to end up seeing. Yeah, that's why I love this one so much because even if Amanda, because you would think like Amanda's tendency here, just be like, yeah, we'll just slow it down a little bit and we'll be fine. But Julianna Pena, like does it fight like that? And if Amanda slows it down, like Julianna will just blitz her and get right in her face and make her work. So that is a that's some theater and I'm excited to see how it goes down. But one other thing I wanted to bring up before we kind of look at the card as a whole is, Sean, it's amazing in the sport how quickly we can knock people down off pedestals. Like Amanda Nunes, two titles.

I mean, we were singing her praises for years. The goat, best woman's fighter of all time. There's no discussion, no debate. And then one loss. And it just seems like some people just gave up on that altogether after one loss. Like, I mean, to me, it's like, come on, slow your role a little bit. But I can ask you these type of questions, but I think it's part of the story. What does a second loss to Giuliana Pena do to that legacy?

Like, and what if she wins? Does it almost negate the loss from December? remember, like, how do you feel about Amanda's legacy now? And if she loses, where do you think it stands? And if she wins, where do you think it stands? So there's two elements that, right? Because I do think if she wins, it will negate it to a large part, right? I mean, George St. Pierre, famously lost to Matt Sarah.

I don't know that anybody holds it against him. He's still the greatest fighter of all time in my eyes. Like, you were able to get over that type of situation if you're that level of greatness. And I think that would translate very well to Amanda. If she does lose, though, I mean, who cares, right? like obviously she doesn't want to lose but she is still the greatest female fighter we have ever seen in the history of the sport

losing at the end of your career and for her this is year 14. You don't know how much longer she's going to go. Anderson Silva lost the end of his career a bunch of times and he is still easily the greatest middleweight we have ever seen in the history of the sport. Fighters lose at the end of their career like that's just sort of the reality of the game the game

eats itself, the old eat the young or the young eat the old. It happens. I don't know that we if Amanda loses on Saturday and people take that loss as sort of evidence that I don't know that she wasn't good this whole time or that she was never as good as we thought that that to me feels very ridiculous very silly very disrespectful and just generally very ignorant to the history of how combat sports has gone throughout history regardless of how this plays out of manan newtons is an all-time great who deserves to be on the

mount rushmore of women's m-maa and i don't think any results that we see on saturday changes yeah it's sometimes people flip-flop and do that but i I completely agree with you, Sean. As a fighter, Damon, and you see people just kind of dogging Amanda Nunes and what she's done in her past because she lost one time and just it wasn't her night. And she lost. Like, we say this all the time at MA fighting. Like, it is so difficult.

It's maybe one of the toughest things in all of sports to be a champion in the UFC. And not just to be a champion, but to be a long reigning champion to continuously go out there night after night, take it on these fighters who have been not only preparing for that date, but have probably been preparing for you since they came in. to the UFC and sometimes you lose. That's why some of these records are really tough to top. Like where DJ and Anderson Silver are, I have a hard time believing anybody's going to match those records or break those records.

So when you see people kind of dogging Amanda after losing to Juliana, I was curious what your reaction is and where does your legacy stand after Saturday winner lose? I think definitely like everybody gets super emotional like during the fight and maybe right after that after a while you kind of just have to like Google someone's name and at what they've done. You know, like people make it big deal about like an accidental eye poke to end the fight or they see that that guy went out last week and threw a leg kick and then hurt his knee. But they're going to actually hear in about a couple months, you're going to look up

his name and you're going to see that it was just a loss. And at the end of the day, that's all it is. So I think that she comes back after this fight after losing the last fight and after all the, you know, things that she's done before that. If she comes out and she wins, people will never remember the loss at all. I think if she goes out there and they have like, you know, a five round slug fest and she loses again, they're going to, they're not going to think anything about it.

It's like fans are always like in the moment. So you're like, you're only as good as your last fight. And that goes a long ways. It's like, you know, if you go out there and look like crap, everybody's going to think that you're going to look like crap and it's fight. So you can either take that and run with it and go out there and have like a really exciting fight or you can go out there

and do what you think. that everybody thinks you're going to do. So I think that this fight is, I think the women's division as a whole, you got these girls in there, just wanting to prove themselves against the guys. They want to go out there and put on a good show. They want to get paid the same.

So they're out there just slugging it out. And I think it creates a lot of excitement for a fight. And I think that this fight is about as exciting as it gets for the females, because, you know, you do have one of the greatest girls that ever fighting the sport. And then, you know, you got a girl that's not scared of fighter, which is really hard to find because there's a lot of people that they say they talk about smack and they say that they're not scared. But when you look at Juliana, you listen to her talk, you know she's legit not scared to fight.

She's going to bring the fight to her for sure. And I think it's going to be a very exciting fight. You know, I think it definitely holds a lot to her. Her value as a fighter going forward, both of them. I think, you know, if they're smart, what they'll do is they'll have a really close fight back and forth. And then at the very end, Julianna should let her win, let Nunes win. And then they have a trilogy

because then they would sell more paper juice. But hey, you can't do that. You got to, you got to go out there. You got to put it on the show. You got to finish the fight. I think that this is definitely going to be an exciting fight. But I think Giuliana, I think she's going to walk her down. I think that Amanda would say what she wants.

I think that that's the secrets of beating her. It's just not being scared of her. I mean, what a, I mean, what a scene that was. All right. We'll break, we'll look at the rest of this card in a moment, but the point for round three, this is going to be a stunner goes to, I mean, it was close,

but Damon kind of stole it with that, with that last couple of sentences. It's two to one. I mean, that was amazing. This man is keeping his heart rate so damn low while doing this show and doing it in on the treadmill this whole time. This is just ridiculous, the impressive. He hasn't even taken a deep breath.

It's unbelievable. Not one deep breath at all. It's probably on like a 12 incline right now. It's unbelievable. But so we got this card. This is the second paper view of July. We had UFC 276. I've got UFC 277.

And on paper, there's not really much of a comparison. I think 276 is a little more loaded. There's more the International Fight Week thing, trying to bring that back to its glory, bring it back to its peak, so to speak. But this card, like the main card on this one is really solid. I love the co-main event. We'll start that.

We get Derek Lewis on the card against Sergey Pets. Pavlovich. Pentosian Perez are just going to beat the brakes off each other. Ankleif Anthony Smith is so interesting to me. I love that fight a lot. But, Damon, I'll start with you. We talked about the main event. It's a good one. You love the stylistic matchup. You love the fact that Giuliana Pena is not scared to get into a brawl or get into a fight with the man of Nunes. Now we got Branham Moreno taking on Kai Kar-France, interim flyway title. The winner will probably meet Davis and Figurato sometime at the end of the year to unify the belts. This fight rules, their first fight ruled, and now you're going to give

these guys 10 extra minutes? Good Lord. What are your thoughts on this co-mainton? I got to go with my boy Moreno. I think that he, you know, he goes after him and, you know, he's just like, it was frustrating to see him lose his last fight, but, you know, I think he's still got the champ material. I think he's got the excitement for sure. I think that, you know, whenever you have that title and you lose it, you just want to do everything in the world to get it back. So I think it's going to be a very exciting fight. I think he pulls it off for sure. Sean, I love a lot about this fight because Brandon Moreno, I've said this publicly many times,

one of my favorite people to interview with this entire sport. You give me multiple names, and then Brandon Moreno is one of them. Don't even list off the rest of the names. I'm taking Brandon Moreno. He's just such a positive presence, such a good dude and just fun to talk to. And he's a great fighter. But Kai Kar-France right now, man. There's certain fighters and you see the road they've taken and you see the path they're on.

And you see this guy went in there and beat Asker Asker off. And you almost have this like sort of feel to him that I mean, I just don't know if this guy can lose right now. Like everything just seems to be coming up Kai Kar-France at this point. And that's what makes this fight so fascinating to me. This is a glorified number one contender fight. It was the talk of do we just do four in a row with Moreno and Figgy or does Kai Kar-Franz skip the line? This actually works out better in my mind because now we get to just get to just get the the answer to the question and then the winner can fight figgy at the end of the year.

So what do you think about this co-main event? Five rounds at 125 pounds between these two guys? This thing's going to be fantastic, is it not? Oh, it's spectacular. The flyweight division right now is just completely on fire. I mean, we saw it with the Matt Schnell fight not too long ago. Like this division is red hot. And this is just an example of it, man.

And I mean, you talk about the road that Kikara France has been on. He has really turned his fortunes around over these last two years. He has really turned into a force. in this division. And I know some people may complain about the interim title and sort of what's on the stake here. But, I mean, ultimately, I care about these guys getting paid more. And if that's what it takes to get these guys getting paid more and getting championship pay and more, you know, more fighters on this card getting paid more money, I'm here for it. It makes sense in this case. I mean, Divis Faguerreiro, we don't really know exactly when he's going to come back. Ultimately,

I was in favor of the Tetrology right after that third fight. But if this is the way the cards play out, like this is perfectly fine option B for me. And I think this is just has, fireworks written all over. These two guys come after it. And I don't know any way that I mean, I know it's almost a jinx to say like, there's no way this fight can be boring, but there genuinely is no way that this fight can be boring. This is going to be fight of the night. It has it written all over it. Taking a look at the rest of the card, Damon. I mean, I know you want to pick yourself here, but we like to play a game called what's the low key banger on a pay-per-view card. What's the fight on this card that as a fan you are just super excited about that maybe not enough

people are talking about. I think Alex Morono, I think he's going to still show. I think he'd go out there, pull off some flashy kicks, some flashy. He's, I think he's headlining the undercard. I think that he comes out there and puts on a show, and I think he'll end up getting a sick submission. I think he hits him, her team, TKO, or a quick sub,

and it'll be flashy for sure. I love that fight. Alex Marono, one of the best spoken fighters in all of MMA. Like you interview Alex Marono and you feel like you're listening to Mr. Feeney give a lecture on history or something.

It's just so well spoken. You learn so much every time you talk to this, man. I like that fight, Sean. What's yours? What's the one that's flying under the radar? What's the one that's got you all jazzed up? I mean, Damon's got a rep for the Fortis guys. I totally understand that call.

I mean, for me, I'm going back to the fly weights, man. I mean, I agree with you, Mike. I think this main card's sort of being looked over a little bit too much. It's really compelling up and down the main card. But for me, that Alex Perez versus Alejandro Petosia fight, that has fire written all over it. We haven't seen Alex Perez since he lost to Deveson back in 2020.

It's nice to have him back in the mix. And Pantosia's sort of been this lost guy in this 125 pound division. Like he is one of the best fly weights in the entire world, period. He already beat Brandon Moreno once. That was several years ago. But still, that was a fun fight back then. This guy brings it every time. And I don't see any way that this fight disappoints.

I'm really looking forward to that one. Yeah, I think this is not really low key, but no respect for Anthony Smith this week. It's unbelievable. No respect for this man. I'm curious to see how he shows up with that massive chip on his shoulder because he's carrying that thing. And it might be the biggest one he's ever had. So, uh, Damon Jackson is getting ready to run. The point for round four goes to.

It goes to Sean Alshadie because I want Damon to make sure he makes that 155 mark. I want to make them run up just a few minutes more. So that means it's time for the knockout round. I don't know how this is going to work. I don't know if there's a poll up. Maybe Casey will get one up there. If not, Casey will deliver the answer. But we'll ask one question.

It'll be the same question for both you guys. I didn't know what it was until like 12 seconds ago. But I'm going to go with that. Each of you will have 60 seconds to answer when it's over. We'll bring Casey in and he will announce the winner. So Shaheen, you won the random draw. Do you want to go first or do you want to pass this over to Damon Jackson.

I'm going to go first and see how out of breath Damon can get for his answer. All right. So we're going to play a fun game called Dana White was on the fence. What should the answer have actually been? So Dana White was at Dana White's Contender Series. He spoke with the media after.

And one question I hoped that he would get, he actually got, and he had quite the answer to this. So I don't know if you guys saw this on social media. This is a very big deal. It went viral. but there was an ACA card that went down. And right before they stopped, right before they went to the final round, the promoter for the promotion came in and said, essentially, this fight is really boring.

I'm disqualifying you both. And it just ended the fight right there then. So Dato was asked about it and he said, quote, that is effing awesome props to that guy. And then he said, highly incredibly unprofessional, but effing awesome at the same time. was it really a boring fight? Well, that gives me some ideas for next Tuesday.

So, Sean, was this unprofessional or was this effing awesome? One minute on the clock, your time starts now. I mean, can it be both? Because I feel like it can probably be both, right? Because it's super unprofessional, especially in a situation like that where it seemed like this was some sort of tournament set up. And just generally, like all of this was very unprofessional. but who among us has not been watching a fight

that maybe it wasn't the best that maybe it didn't particularly enjoy and just wish you could go in there and tell them both, all right, we've seen enough, like we understand where this is going. So I think it's absolutely both. And that's fine.

I think sometimes you can split the fence on this and things could be one way or another. That's all I got. That's 30 seconds. All right, so nope, I'm going to add to this. So let's just say before Carla Sparser, Rosamie Unis went into the fifth round and Dana White went into the Octagon.

How would you have reacted to that? I mean, that's a championship fight, my man. You got to let somebody win the title. That would have been outrageous if you just like, hey, no one, like Rose, you don't, you're not champion anymore. No one's champion in the division. That's a little too much. I'm not here for that.

But, I mean, again, I'm not going to name names, but there have been certain fights where I'm sure we wish we could do something like this. Yes. I only ask that because I know how highly you regard that fight. And it's in print for everybody to read if they want to. So, Damon, you are literally, you are literally running here. So same question to you. to get the fighter perspective here.

Was this effing awesome or was this highly incredibly unprofessional? You probably saw the video multiple times. Your time starts now. Yeah, you know, I think it's definitely a professional, but, you know, after seeing Dana's reaction, I kind of thought that this would have happened

like in the early 2000s. Like if it would have happened, it would have happened then from Dana. Because now you can't do anything wrong nowadays because we're going to, the media is going to blast you for months and months and months. So I think that it definitely gave Dana idea, but it's a little too late. But I think that the fighter's got to take something away from that.

And you got to realize that you're out there to put a show on. You're out there to entertain people. They have to work every day. These guys, they bust their ass every day. They have their job. They're working. They spend their money on this pay-per-view card, and now you're not going to entertain them.

So it's like, you know, like I understand it. I understand why the fans and Dana gets mad. But sometimes when you're in there, you just don't have the answer. You don't want to step the wrong way and get here or whatever. So I see both ways that I think it was definitely a professional bit. I'm surprised they didn't do it yet.

Oh my goodness. This man just spoke for a minute straight while running. This is, just mailing it in this is done. This is absolutely done. Oh, my God. If there is an actual poll, like this should be like 90-10 right now.

I'm voting for Damon. I was, I mean, I was almost in tears laughing. He's just sprinting away. way uphill and just given the answer, barely breathing. Absolutely ridiculous. So there you go. There's the question. And let me just say this.

Kudos to Dana White for that speech on Tuesday night after the contender series. Only gave the one contract out to Joe Pfeiffer. We don't see that kind of energy in Dana these days. This was like, you know, this is the Dana like, this is the 2022 version of do you want to be an effing fighter? And I dug it. I really dug it. And it kind of gave me good vibe. for the rest of the season because I love,

love the contender series. I love it so much. And I wanted to go back more towards the first couple of seasons where you didn't just win and get a contract. You really had to work for it. So I dug that a lot. So you guys can vote as it says here. We have a very busy schedule here at M.A. fighting. Tomorrow, sometime in the morning, we'll have a heck of a morning.

Probably before the actual weigh-ins for Dallas. Maybe Damon will be there to weigh in on Friday. that we'll have your way in show. We'll have your preview show. We'll have Saturday of the People's Pre-Fight show. I think we're going to do like 515 Eastern. Stay tuned for that. And then we'll have all your coverage.

Jose Young's is in Dallas right now, getting you all fired up. So let us bring in the man with the baddest stash in MMA media. E. Casey Liden in his due spot. Do we have a winner? We do have a winner. We do have a winner. All right.

Let me close this poll. We already know the answer to this. Yeah, I mean, what are we doing here? What are we doing? What are we doing? All right. Your winner on today's Between the Links is by a whopping 99% of the votes. Yeah.

Damon. I never said to change. That's amazing. Wow. I didn't see this coming. I think Damon Jackson just changed between the links forever. Because if you don't show up on a treadmill, you're going to have to work a little bit harder. So, Damon, well said, and your prize is you get 30 seconds to say whatever it is you want to say.

So if you have some words of wisdom for your fellow 55ers heading into Saturday's card, let them know. Whatever you want to say, the floor is yours. Hey, regular leg or dis-angles. I don't want to really get hurt, but it's like a stomach. bug, like Cowboys Soroni, Joe Lozong kind of thing, where you don't really know what's going on, like a stomach bug. Like, I would love to take the fight. I'm actually, I'm going to, I'm going to DM all the guys at 55 and I'm going to say,

hey, if you went out of the fight, I'll pay you 10 grand. So that's, if you see someone pull out of the car. Wow. Hey, if they all pull off at the same time, I guess, oh, you know, 30 grand to all those guys. Wow. Listen to that. Clip that off. Clip that off. Wow.

Amazing. Go eat some shrimp tacos. Let's get the weirdest shrimp tacos you can find right now. I got a great place. Amoto. Go to Amoto. If you're going to the Dallas car, go to a motto. It's right there by American Inhervent Center.

It's the best sushi in Dallas. I don't know if you're trying to get them to eat bad sushi or not. But if you are, I'm here for it. Hey, hey, go for it. Well, this was just some episode, Sean. I mean, you saw this man on the treadmill already. You knew you were toast. So your reaction to the non-surprising result.

I mean, it's the right call, but it definitely influences how I'm going to approach this show in the future. You're right, Damon is just reinventing the show. I'm going to be doing push-ups next time I'm doing, I'm on this show. I'm just going to be doing sets in between this pumping out some curls or something. Like, let's get this going. Let's kick this up a notch next time. I'm here for it.

I mean, we definitely helped Damon with this weight cut because he had to talk, run, and walk at all the same time. and you did a fantastic job. This might be the best performance in the history of the program, but we appreciate you all watching. We appreciate Sean for coming on. We appreciate Damon for cutting on in the middle of a weight cut.

And Ed Cap, you created magic today by man, so salute to you as well. Thank you very much. We'll be back once again right here on the show. Lots of 277 stuff coming up. So stay tuned to Embay Fighting for all of that. So for Shahid, for Damon, for Casey on the Ones and 2's the iconic voice of Esther Lynn.

Perhaps we'll take you home. I am Mike Keck. We'll see you back here next week between the links. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Links. Hi, Mr. Lynn. Congratulations. Sean O'Sahdi, do some push-ups.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.