MMA Fighting - BTL | Pantoja & Aldo Shine At UFC 301, Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov, UFC St. Louis, Diaz vs. Masvidal

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

UFC 301 is in the books, and while there wasn't a ton of buzz heading into the UFC pay-per-view event, the card was fun to watch. In the end, the Brazilian fans went home happy after Alexandre Pantoja and Jose Aldo picked up unanimous decision wins in the final two fights. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will put a bow on UFC 301, discuss where Pantoja goes, Aldo's free agency, and other storylines from this past Saturday's card. Additionally, topics include the announcement that Cory Sandhagen will face Umar Nurmagomedov in the main event of August's UFC Abu Dhabi card, this Saturday's UFC St. Louis event headlined by Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento, the boxing match between Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal reportedly getting moved to July, Jon Jones favoring a fight with Alex Pereira over Tom Aspinall, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Jose Youngs.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe 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

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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.

This is between the links. And now, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. the Thursday, same old show. New chair though, look at this bad boy. I look like I'm freaking Dr. Claw or something from Inspector Gadget, but a lot to discuss, as always on today's edition of the program.

So let us introduce the combatants first. He's back. He took a week off, but now the take shall be even spicier, I would assume from MMAFighting.com, Mr. No Gray area himself. Jed Bishu. Hi, Jed, feeling refreshed. Hey, no, not at all.

I didn't. I forgot I had a dentist appointment until like the evening before. And I was like, whoops, can't do it. I'll be under the knife and just deeply intoxicated on nitrous oxide, which, you know, was kind of fun. But we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about other stuff and in the fight world. So whoopee.

Yay. And back on the program, he's MMA fighting's Road Warrior resident coffee guru, in fact, we got to grab some coffee this past Saturday in the NYC, and he's an enthusiast of high-level fisticuffs, the social media giant himself, the sleeveless Jose Youngs. How are you, buddy? I feel great. It's finally.

Look at the biceps. We finally have nice days in New York. It's overcast, but high 70s. So, you know, I forgot when I left the Northeast, how unbearably humid this place gets. So that's fun. But at least we can. can go outside and sleeveless shirts now.

Nice. Well, let us get into it. The UFC's latest pay-per-view offering is in the books. Unfortunately, not a lot of people seem to care all that much, which is a little bit unfortunate because it was a pretty fun watch. Had a good competitive championship main event. We had some nostalgia, some big finishes, and even some revenge. So, Jose, let us begin with you.

when you look back at 2024 a few years from now and you're asked about UFC 301 specifically, how will you remember this card? Hmm. It's not going to be in the top 10 pay-per-views of the year of 2024. I'll say that much. Most likely because I know UFC 297 wasn't that great either. That was the first one in January,

but I think the build-up for that was had a lot of unfortunate conversations that popped up so people are going to remember it for that. And I'm talking about quality of card. I'm just talking about things that people will remember. So I think UFC 297 will be remembered for, A, going back to Toronto, the Sean Strickland show, the Driekis win and all that. And then February was the Iliot Teporia show.

March was the Sean O'Malley show. April was UFC 300. So UFC 301 is probably the least memorable pay-per-view of the year so far. And we've only probably, hopefully, gone bigger and better ones coming. I know there's a, there seems to be a lull in late summer with lack of headliners or lack of announced headliners. And I, for whatever reason, I think UFC 308 is announced for Abu Dhabi in October, which if you're doing the math, UFC 305 is in August. And then UFC 308 is in October, which means there has to be two pay-per-views between August, the August pay-per-view and then the Abu-Dabi pay-per-view, unless they rename things. So hopefully we can get some fun pay-per-view headliners then.

but as of right now, U.S.C. 301 is probably the least memorable pay-per-view. Fun car, like you said, like we're very fun finishes, and I'm sure we'll talk about that by the end of the year, but overall top to bottom 301 is probably going to fall into that category of like when Jamal Hill fogglover of Cheshirea. Like people just didn't really talk about that pay-per-view after it happened, especially after everything that happened last year. So five, the fifth best pay-per-view of the year, I would say, so far.

Jed, how will you remember this one? I will say to Jose, we do have 306 too, because 306 is the sphere. So there's just 307 is going to happen early October, I guess. I'm going to guess that's in a place that they usually go to that they haven't announced yet, but they signed a deal with. That's all I can probably say. Yeah, it sounds. We're on the same page.

I don't think I'm going to say anything totally different, but I don't come at this from a different angle, right? because sure, this is probably the least memorable pay-per-view. But we could have said that coming in. Like, it's a paper view being headline about 100 Pentosia versus a guy that no one knows in Steve Erseg. That it's not, it doesn't have the top billing like Volcanowski-Tuporio was or certainly the changing of the guard moment. So it's not memorable in that way.

I think this is the third best pay-per-view of the year if you are just talking about watching the part you paid money for. Like, nothing's ever going to top 300. that that just has too much going for it. And $2.99 was also exceptional. But, like, though those are real outliers in terms of pay-per-view quality fight cards anyway. And so it's no shame to come up short next to those. But $2.98, like, clearly has the fun ending moment, Ilya sort of a sins.

The rest of that card, the rest of the main card, not talking about the parts that you get to watch on ESPN, stuff you paid the $80 for. pretty mid like just a lot of decisions fights that are fine but not like things that are exciting whereas this one we got some squash matches we got anthony smith pulling off a massive upset uh we got the return of the goat and then we got a very competitive back and forth fun title fight like i think this is just based on the quality of the viewing experience the third best pay-per-view of the year from an enjoyment standpoint even if it did kind of feel like a fight night and ultimately we're not going to remember too much about it. Yeah, and I would say this is, there's two real storylines that that came out of this if you even

want to call it that. One was right at the very top with Alexander Pantosia Jed and Steve Ursaig, Vinnie Siggs, and good old Vincenzo went in there and put up one hell of a fight. A lot of people felt like he beat Alexandra Pantosia. But you talk about different weapons all the time, just hit really hard, athleticism is a cheat code. You also talk about the importance of durability and how big of a weapon that is. And if that is the case, Alexandra Pantosia is a man demon. This man cannot be hurt. He can't be knocked down. And it was such a big weapon for him in this fight. Plus, he was able to just battle it out and

do Pantosia things. And he got the unanimous decision win. Biggest takeaway, Jed, from that fight and to add a little wrinkle to this, what should be next for Pantosia after taking some time off, as you said after the fight. It's such a cheat code, Mike. It is such a fucking cheat code to just be impervious to harm. It's ridiculous. It just makes it so you're not fighting a fair fight because if I'm invulnerable and you are vulnerable, even if you were much better at all other parts of fighting, just the

law of numbers. Eventually, I get to boop you and you die and you can never hurt me. It's such a ridiculous cheat code. And like, Max Holloway is obviously very. very, very good at fighting, but it's also backed up by, like, the world's biggest cheat code and that you can't hurt him. And when Jose Aldo fought Malpolo, like, that was when it really solidified for me. Because, like, you just see the difference in, in the Jose Aldo versus Max Holloway and, like, Jose versus Jonathan Martinez, this fight, right? Where, like, Martinez started

to do something and Joseph would be like, oh, it's time to hit him real hard, and then it'll back the fuck up. And he did that. Max was like, whatever, we're cool. The same principles apply for Pantosia. He is not a striker that you would ever tell people, like, you should fight like him. That is the textbook. That's model your striking game after him. Particularly against like a guy like Ersek who is so much bigger than him physically, he really struggled to get inside and do things appropriately.

So he's just like, whatever, yolo, I'm going to walk in. He can hit me. It's going to be fine. I'll eat that elbow and maybe I'll cut, but I won't be concussed. and then I'm in the space I want to be. It's a ridiculous cheat code, and his game is in some ways built around it. And good, that's what you should do.

When you have serious advantages, you should build your game around those, and Pantosia clearly has. And so my biggest takeaway is, like, I knew that he was very tough and very durable. But at some point, you just keep watching it over and over again. You're like, oh, he actually just can't. He just really does have one of those all-time chins.

like you just can't ever crack him because those elbows from ursac like that was clearly a plan they looked at him like he is going to step in we might not catch him with with the minutes coming in just because of the timing but he is going to put himself into this space and i will meet him with bone into his temple and that will be the decider and it it happened exactly like it was drawn up and it didn't do a goddamn thing to stop that man because he cannot be killed and And so good for you. That's, that's unbelievable. And what should be next for Pantoja?

Oh, I forgot what should be next. Oh, they just announced yesterday. I think it was yesterday, right? Cop versus McHiaev is taking place at the Manchester card. Timeline works out perfectly. The winner that gets a title fight, Mirabazi sucks to be you. But he, pants already said he wants to sit out. I think he's kind of targeting late into the year, December.

Lines up perfectly. The winner of McHive, Cop, there's, I think there can be no bones about the winner of that fight deserving a title fight. Knock on wood, assuming it happens, Manel Cop making it to fight week has been pretty hit or miss in the last couple of years. But assuming that fight happens, that's a clear number one contender bout. Jose, biggest takeaway from the main event, was it on the champion side? Was it on Steve Erseg's side? And do you agree with Jed that the cop, Makayev winner should be next?

The biggest takeaway, I would agree with Jed. It's just the durability. And Demetri's Johnson basically said, how did he describe it? Like he's not going out there and just like dominating you. He's just kind of pulling out these wins and fighting strategically, which is good on you, man. I think he's what? Pantos is 7 and 0 against the top five of the UFC flyweight division.

So wins are the most important thing in sports. And I know using the term sports when describing mixed martial arts, specifically the UFC is kind of an argument unto itself, but I choose to view it as a sport. Being 7-0 against the elite of the elite is very impressive. Alexandre Pantosia, though it's in that unfortunate, like we look fondly back at Brandon Moreno's run because every single fight he was in was unbelievable.

Demetius Johnson was the one of, if not the most dominant champions in the history of this entire sport. Davidson Figurato had that quadrology, quadrology, quadriloly, whatever you guys were calling it these days against Brennan-Mor and every single one was an absolute banger. And Pantosia is just really good and beat a lot of the guys that are in the top five on the way to winning the title. And this is, you know, that argument that people always say like, oh, like Max Holloway beat everyone

in that top five or whatever on his en route to winning the featherweight title against Joseo's and then basically he just lap the division. Pantos just lap in the division and just a less flashy, exciting way. So I think Panthosia is going to be an underappreciated champion for a very long time, especially if he just, quote, unquote, just keeps winning and not just melting or

running over people and is just putting on durable, high-level performances. I do agree Manel Kopp versus Mohamed Mahi-Mahev is the fight to make for the normal contender. If Manel Kopp can make weight and win, I would love to see that fight. I think we had this conversation in the last Thursday, right? Like, Manel Kopp

hasn't really beaten anyone in the top 15. So Mahab and Mahayev is also, I know people are kind of down on him a bit because of his last performances haven't been overly stellar or exciting. But the man has proved you can fight 15 minutes against the top 10 of the flyaway division. Good on him. Manal Cop hasn't fought anyone really high up in the top 15. So this will answer kind of both questions. I can't imagine Minal Cop is going to be a boring fight. His last fight in Sydney was a lot of fun. I don't know what Amar al-Bazi should do though, because he seemed to be. to be the number one contender.

And now if Pantosia's taking some time off it, wants to come back in December, unless they throw a boatload of money at him to fight Amarabazi on the Abu Dhabi card, maybe a co-man event, that could work too because money talks. I just sucks to be Amir al-Bazi, just like Jed said. And I don't know what Kai-Carf France is up to.

Kai-Carfranz called out Steve Versaic for the Perth card, which is seem to make sense. You know, Australia versus New Zealand. Steve Versaig is from Perth. That would be a lot of fun. And then Amir al-Bosis, once again, the last man standing without an opponent. Yeah, he's going to fight Brandon Royval probably.

I mean, that's pretty much all that's really available, which I'm okay with. Getting to fight the number one guy is a pretty decent consolation process. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, number one. You also get a title shot. Maybe. Yeah.

Perhaps. Maybe it's a bit of a, I wouldn't hate it if they threw Royval and Brandon Royval on that Manchester card too. Oryval versus Albazia on that Manchester card too. Number one, Machita fought Bader and Shogun fought Brennan Devera and Dan was like, whoever has the most exciting finish gets the next title shot. Just do that. Just do that.

I like that idea. Except if Royval beats Al-Bazi, then I don't care. Just whoever wins from a guy of cop gets the title shot. Sure. I don't need to see Ravel fight pants again like this soon. Yeah. Well, let's talk about Jose Aldo, Jose Youngs. This guy is just so damn good.

Let me also jump in with one thing that neither of us mentioned because I don't think it's apparent. Pants is now the only fighter in flyweight history with two title defenses. He is second only to Demetri's Johnson in title defenses. And I feel like that kind of went under the radar. But like, like Jose said, wins are what matters. And he is now the definitionally the second best flyweight in UFC history, which is pretty good when number one is maybe the best fighter of all time. he's like the hafella son-soe

fly-way division just his biggest problem is he's winning and not overly exciting yeah that's such a crazy stat it really is they played hot potato

for a while they really did it was merino and figgy and marino and now it's pants back and forth back and forth hot potato

so this division is going to be pretty interesting obviously not in a I guess a headline spot even Demetrius Johnson had some things to say he's like, look, if you're going to put flywoods in the main event, like don't do it anymore. If you're not even going to trot them out there for a

freaking press conference, then what are we even doing here? Why bother? So I definitely understand where DJ is coming from and he would know better than anybody. But Jose Aldo Jose Youngs, man, this guy just continues to do the damn thing. Another masterclass from the legends, from the Hall of Famer against Jonathan Martinez who came in on a

six-fight win streak. A lot of the comments that I've been getting and seen, is that, I mean, Jose looked good, but Jonathan just didn't show up. And I just completely disagree with that sentiment altogether. But Jose is now a free agent. Fado does deal with the UFC. He's open to coming back to the UFC. It seems like the comfort levels are certainly there.

But there's going to be a lot of people knocking on the door of one Jose Aldo. So now that he's a free agent, Jose, Jose, what would be the most interesting result for this Aldo free agency story. Is it coming back to the UFC and maybe making one last run at the Bannamway title, or is it going somewhere else and match them up against some different Bannam weights who aren't in the UFC but would still be compelling matchups? What do you think? This is one of those rare instances. It's very, it's not similar to Nate Diaz. Like, yeah, Nate Diaz went on on this big win and then he fought Jake Paul, but Nate Diaz was not in talks to possibly fighting for the title and looked better than never like Nate and Tony didn't look that great when they fought back on that September

pay for you before Nate you know won and went off into the sunset and fought. Jake and is kind of flared with the idea of coming back with UFC. It's this is Jose Aldo has looked just as good as he's ever been against a younger opponent who's been kicking fools all his way all the way into like the top 10 at Bannonway. Now I assume he's falling out. Joseo Aldo is the greatest featherweight ever. Alex Volcanowski said it. Max Holloway says it.

Those are the two other people in that argument. If those two people say it, I'm not going to argue with those two. They spent more time in the Octagon with Josealdo than I have. Josealdo can do whatever he wants. I don't care what he does. It's one of those rare instances where I don't think there's a wrong decision. I want to see him fight Dominic Cruz. That would be my number one choice.

There's also other people in the Bandonweight Division. I just selfishly want to see him fight as a martial artist. I want to see him rematch Peter Ion in front of a crowd because the first time they fought was on Fight Island in that bubble. Now that Davis and Figurato is in the Banner, division i am all about davison figurado versus jos a aldo like the song you don't fight would just be awesome boxing in a ufcogon but if you want to go to the boxing route i wouldn't hate that either fight the winner of chris ovila versus anthie pettis or fight anthony petis or that crazy karate combat president

said in one of our post-fight scrum so or if you want to go to pf lito or if you want to call it and we finally get josie ala versus patricio pippo or josialdo versus erin pico or josialdo versus patty mixed. I'm for all of these fights. There is no wrong answer. I just want to see Josealdo fight Dominic Cruz. That would be my number one choice. But if he goes in any direction, I'm fine with it. Especially,

like, if he goes to fight at 135 and he goes to like one championship and we could get 130 pound five, 135 pound fight between Joseo and Demetri's Johnson would also be great too. Don't care who he fights. Don't care where he fights. There are options for Josealdo everywhere

that would be interesting. And it's really that rare it's it's we haven't really experienced this yeah Connor went and fought Floyd but he was still like top it's the UFC Jose Aldo is still the man and it's still melting fools and running over people and there are infinite choices for him and I'm here for all of them Jed what's the most interesting result here what do you want to see I mean Jose's not wrong all these options are fun in their own way but if you had the pencil if you were Jose's manager and you were like convincing him to do one thing or the other just for for your own selfish freaking reasons.

What are you telling them? So he's right. There's no wrong way to eat this Reese's. But there are less optimal ways to eat a Reese's, right? Like if you just take the whole, you know, cup and just shove it in your mouth and swallow it like Scooby-Doo, it's not a wrong way, but it's a suboptimal way to enjoy a Reese's. And that's what re-signing with the UFC would be. It'd be fine.

We could get the Dominic Cruz fight. That'd be okay. and if the UFC decides to do the appropriate thing for the vibes and just fire them right into a title fight against the winner of Marab and O'Malley, then I won't be upset about it. Like we'd be okay with Jose getting one last run at it, et cetera, et cetera. The issue is when you resigns with the UFC, it won't be a two-fight contract. That's just not, the UFC doesn't do business that way.

It'll be six fights and that'll be the end of his career. We'll be maybe one or two fights that we want to see. And then like, okay, you can either choose to not. fight or you're you know we're going to have you fight umar do some other and again those aren't awful but that's just not the vibes this man is 37 like he i don't i don't care about him doing fighting the jonathan martinez of the world made somewhat of sense for like the position we were in now but we don't need to go back into that the best choice is i think signing with pfell ator but hose did touch on one that i didn't think he was going to bring up which is kind of

kind of the secret ambition of my heart, which is that he will just fight Demetrius Johnson and not sign with one, just be like, one, I will do one fight against DJ at 135 pounds. Your hydration stuff is stupid. We're not going to pretend that that's true or whatever, because that would be awesome. I would love that so very much. Do that and then come to PFL ator because the patchy mix fight, everyone is salivating over that. The Patricio Pitbull fight, that fights past it. its due date, right?

But it's still good. Like, we got Chuck versus Vandaleigh, and even though that was clearly well after, like, when it would have been peak, it still tasted good. It went down smooth. And so that fight was awesome. Like, you could watch it and be like, yeah, this isn't the height, like, this isn't, whatever that was 2004 GP where I think was when they were trying to set it up. It wasn't like what it would have been then, but it was still great.

And we can get the same thing with Pitbull Aldo. and I think that would be, to me, the PFL Tour is just the best case because Jose gets paid the most money, they will back up the Brinks truck because they spend money like they got it. And then we can get a couple of good matchups there to kind of, you know, make us all happy and kickstart PFL's Bantamweight division in a substantive, meaningful way. So the best way to eat this Reese is PFL ator.

If just before that happens, he goes and fights Demetius Johnson because that would make me real happy. I think PFL has to sign Jose. I think it's like a must, it's a must sign for them. They got to do it. Figure it out. Overpay him. Overpay him to the point where the U.S.C. cannot match the offer. Then he can box Jake Paul.

Jake loves to box old guys. He's a lot bigger then. So Jose Alton. Isn't that like a 70 pound difference? I'd still pick Jose. He's good. He's actually good at fighting. Yeah.

I mean, 70 pounds. It's so weird. There's a lot of his pretty math. It is, but legit, like, I'm not even kidding. I think I'd pick Jose. Because Jose Aldo's issues, like, he's the best defensive fighter of all time. His issues are when you throw in combination. Jake Paul still hasn't figured out combination punching.

He would jab and Jose would parry it and pop him and just keep moving. It'd be great. Yeah, maybe. I mean, we're really getting after it here. All right, let us move on. There's some other things to discuss. Point for round one. goes to, there is. I promise you.

Gray round, Jose Young's on the board. One to nothing. Nicely done. 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 and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep. Groo.

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Reese's, in your opinion? When I was younger, I like to punch out the middle and eat the just soft middle part first and then, you know, have the edges after. Now I just like it like a little bit chilled, you know, and then I just, you know, just take a couple bites, you know, you want to savor it, you want to enjoy it and get the good snap of a cold, you know, kind of rigid edges. What's up? Love it.

Also, a hot take. Sure. Oh. Hot take. I absolutely believe that regular. Reces are better than the like holiday specialty reases, which have more peanut butter to chocolate ratio. Even the pumpkin?

Pumpkins, good time. An egg? Yeah. I mean, the shapes are fun. Don't get me. But you don't have the, those don't come with the like the snappy edges part because it's, it's just a different shape. So it doesn't have the, like, whatever you call the rifling of the edges or whatever.

Yeah. That's a good point. That's a good point. Well, it's time for round two, which means it's time to talk about just. Jed Mishu's favorite fighter. The man he considers, if you listen to the Post Fight Show, he spoke, you know, so emotionally about this man being the greatest fighter in the history of combat sports. He has a poster on his wall.

No, we're not talking about Josealdo. We're talking about Jed Bishu, the UFC heavyweight champion John Jones. Yes, Jed. John Jones jumps on... I don't know heavyweight champion by that name. He jumps on Twitter last week. And he asked a question that created quite a stir. So let me just pull this up.

quick. This is from mambayfutting.com. Great website. If Alex P., he means Alex Pereira, became champion of the heavyweight division, would you guys consider him the goat? Being back in the gym has got me thinking differently. That fight after steep may be the next biggest move I could possibly make. This killer has already defeated so many champions and has already considered a legend to millions around the world. The most massive fight the UFC could make. Give Alex a chance to avenge all the those great Brazilian champions I've defeated. It would be absolutely massive.

A guy with the chance to be three division champion and a goat versus the actual goat. Same age, different strengths. No one can argue that that would be the biggest fight in MMA history. There's absolutely no fight that generates a payday like that. Marketing would be insane. Of course, Jed, there is Tommy Aspinall, the interim heavyweight champion. Everybody wants to see those two guys battle it out. John responded to a comment, which there was a plethora of.

them when it comes to Jones and Aspedal and he says this quote you actually think me fighting tom would be more massive than Alex and I colliding tom only matters in the UK news flash Pereira is one of the most polarizing figures the sport is seen tom's contender who won a belt against another contender we had to save madison square garden's main event I'm thinking dollar signs legacy big picture not what UK fans are dying to see literally just went through this with the French fans so Jed I just read sort of the meat and potatoes of this. I'm sure there are other comments and replies.

Besides pointing to the whiteboard there, what is your reaction to this? The floor is yours. I'll need to say it's on the board. This is that scene in Moneyball. Guys, you're going to make me point at Pete again. It's just it. Like, this started as a gimmick.

I'll break KFabe. It was a gimmick we're going to gaslight John Jones into actually fighting Tom Aspinall because that's a fight that matters. It's not a gift. gimmick anymore. He just don't want smoke. It's the most transparent. I do not want to fight that dude of all time

that I've ever seen. Other than when Jermaine Durand to me gave up her belt because she didn't want to fight Cybor. I don't need to be the featherweight champion. I would rather not fight Chris Cyborg. Thank you very much. Like this is just, like just read the language of John's tweet.

Like just read it. Like, oh, that's the most polarizing figure. Not the most deserving. not the best, not the legacy defining one that he's pretending it's about it's ooh, this is the one and really what it is is I get to fight another middle weight. You guys might let me

fight another middle weight and I can gaslight a certain people into believing them beating this middleweight at heavyweight, this middleweight striker at heavyweight will make me the goat. Like, no. It's just, and thank God there is a certain subset of people who are going to

buy it because they're just I don't know, they're simpletons. And that's okay. it's not a crime to be an idiot, but a vast majority of people seem to have come around to the idea that this is ridiculous nonsense. Maybe it's the fact that Stepe hasn't won a fight in three years, or I'm sorry, has it fought in three years and hasn't won a fight in this century.

Maybe it's just the fact that like no one cares about that fight and John is so focused on a fight that truly, only he, Steepa and Dana seem to have any interest in. like when we did when we did our rankings drop this week and john dropped out of the top pound for pound fight like our top five pound for pound list there was no backlash there's no like how you're not going to have the goat in the time it was like yeah that's fair uh it's fine like he doesn't fight anybody and when he does fight it's going to be against stepe so who gives a shit like this is it is such a transparently horse shit thing where like oh maybe now i can

sell this and the answer is simple he's going to fight stepe and he's going to retire and If the public got behind the Pereira thing, then he would have fought Pereira because that's, that is good. And I want to be really clear. It is excellent prize fighting. This is elite level prize fighting. As Casey loves to note all the time, the sport is the sport. Prize fighting is prize fighting. And this is A plus because it would be a big pay-per-view.

It's John versus Pereira, two big stars, three division champion. All that's true. No risk is he would absolutely dump truck. not no risk, but like substantially less risk than fighting Tom Aspinall, who, you know, probably beats him just straight up, probably beats him at this point in time and doesn't have the same name the Pereira does. Excellent prize fighting, dog shit championship effort. He's, until he fights Tom Aspinall, I have no qualms calling that man a chicken and a coward and chickens can't be goats, baby. We've checked the math on it. It can't happen.

So get the fuck out of my face with the Johns the goat stuff. Nope. It's not. It's just not. I've never seen the goat run from a fight like this. And if you think I'm wrong, John, if someone clips this and sends this to you, prove me wrong. Fucking fight him. Fucking fight him.

Fight Tom Aspital. Prove me wrong. I win either way. As great as the rant was, the just random thumbs up emoji was the best part. just floated perfectly. Yeah. I still didn't even know that. The internet understands. The technology agrees with me.

Can't happen. Can't happen. Unreal. Jose, are you as passionate about these tweets from one John Jones? No, because I could get, I just don't put much stock into anyone saying anything when, you know, they can just fist fight rather than tweet. I don't particularly care who John fights. Their arguments for both.

Obviously, Tom Asmal would be the. infinitely harder fight and I'm actually with Jed I think Tom Asperall beats John Jones especially right now John Jones in his prime if he had gone to heavyweight would be a different story but the way it stands right now Tom in 2024 I think would beat John Jones in 24 24 24 just especially coming off of that shoulder surgery Alex Pereira would be the much as as Jed said would be the easier fight and probably make more money you I guess you run the risk of getting punched in the face by the hardest hitter and allegedly the hardest hitter in the history of the UFC,

who apparently is also a black belt for knocking people out. But yeah, I'm not, Jed pretty much said at all. I'm not going to go on record saying John Jones is a coward. Anyone that's fought, anyone that's taking short-noticed fights against Shogun Huah, I wouldn't call him a coward. That's a scary situation unto itself. I will say he's being oddly strategic for really the first time in his career.

in a very specific moment when this big scary heavyweight from the UK has burst onto the scene and it's been everything we're saying about Tom now like athletic fast moves differently than any other heavyweight we were saying about john and light heavyweight i want to see that fight as a high level martial arts fight but i would also be here if john just ran over alice prayer because that would just be generate more interest on the site i would say and probably be do better for business But if you ask me, give me the Tom Aspinall fight. I just want to see high level of martial arts. And I think the UK fans deserve, you know, I think the UK fans deserve it. I was talking to Eric Nixon yesterday.

That interview is going to drop, I think, at the top of the hour now. And Tom Aspinall was at Extreme Coutor. And he was just like blown away by Tom Aspinall. He's like, everything they say about him is true. And then some, it's just insane to see him. They said he was moving around like Kai Kamaka and he moved like just as quick and just as fluid as a freaking featherweight, which is wild for a guy that size. So real quick, before we move on to one other topic before we moved around three,

Jose, I go back to you, if Dana White in the next couple of days goes on Instagram, starts making fight announcements, and he announces that the main event of UFC 304 in Manchester is not what you think it's going to be. It is actually John Jones versus Tom Aspinall for the undisputed heavyweight title. I don't think it's going to happen. No. But anything can happen. How surprised, on a scale 1 to 10, how surprised would you be?

Absolutely flabbergasted that they would have John Jones fight Tom Asmel at like 11 p.m. Local time or like go actually not even because isn't that when the pay-per-view starts. So it would be like Sunday morning local time. I would be good for John though. It'd be right in his wheelhouse time frame-frame-wise. I would be absolutely gobsmacked if John Jones fought Tom Asplow. in Manchester at UFC 304. That would be, I don't, that scenario has never,

I've never thought of that scenario. I probably will never think of that scenario. It's just not going to happen. It's just never going to happen unless you give, like John would say, John would demand eight figures for that to happen at minimum. Never going to happen. And they should give it to them. How would you react, Jed?

Would you take back all the things you said about John or do you feel like, You sort of, that you led this. Would you take a victory lap for leading this revolution, so to speak? No, because an announcement is far different from a thing actually happening. Sure, they could announce it. And I would be very stunned. Like, I would be as flabbergasted as possible that John even ponied up enough courage to sign a contract, right? Because he can't, chicken, chicken.

Bok, bach, bach, chicken, chicken. there's a very big difference between actually you know getting gaslit into signing the contract and then having to spend the next three months doing the thing that you don't want to do when at any point you can call out you say oh my shoulders sacked in a bar can't do it oh stepe's back i can't do it oh the uk fans it can't like he can't duck out for any reason you know like there's there's always a cage to hide under and john can always find one of those if he needs it. So if they announced it and it happened, it would be the most shocking thing that's maybe ever happened in the history of the sport because he is a coward and a chicken. It would be dope.

And I've I've said many times on this and other programs, I will stop my language towards John the day he does fight Tom Aspinall and puts up or shuts up. Until then, he ain't my goat and I hope he's not yours because this is nonsense. Uh, well, we'll see. I don't think it's going to happen, but no chance. Let's zero chance. Well, let's touch on a fight that actually was announced. And Jed, I'll start with you.

There's merit high level fighting, the fights who are supposed to get versus the fights that make the most money. I totally understand that. But we got a big one, 135 pounds, August 3rd, Abu Dhabi, fight night event. It's going to be five rounds. Corey Sanhagan, Jed versus Umar, Nurmaga, Madoff, as everybody, knows this supposed to be the main event of UFC Nashville back in August of this past year. Umar gets hurt.

Rob Fon steps in. Faye's Corey Sandhagen who was also hurt heading into that fight and it was not a memorable performance. Corey basically fought Rob Fon with one arm and just took him down a whole bunch. And now it appears we're getting it in around three months time with everybody good to go and healthy and as healthy as they could be

anyways. I assume you're very much into this, Jed Mishu, especially as a guy who is so extremely high on Umar and Raghamato. Hell yeah, this fight rocks. If this is possible to be less cowardly, the exact opposite levels of cowardly to John, Corey St. Hagan's that dude. There's Corey Sank man to take this fight.

He didn't have to fight Umore. Like, I look right now he's on what three, four fight win streak in the weight class, all good top level wins like in a normal division that didn't have a whole lot of weirdness happening in a champion who's like not trying to fight all that many people, frankly. Corey San Diego would pretty clearly be in a all right I probably don't even have to fight right like I'm just next up I get to weigh in as the backup for Marab and I'm the next dude in line but he recognizes that's not the case and even if even if that were the case he wouldn't care because Corey's like hear him talk in all of his interviews he says all the time he's not about the sitting around and waiting and trying to get there he's just about the business and like I'm here to fight I would like to see if I'm the best and I learn that by fighting people and here's the dude no one else wants to fight i'll fight him screw it like i don't give a buck oh you want me to do it in saudi i don't give a fuck i will do that as well like he is he is about that action and corey sanhagen is a boss for taking this fight my early impressions

are like i'm going to pick umar because i think umar is probably actually the best band of weight in the world but that's like so speculative like we just don't know we haven't got to see him apply his in a long time anyway and just against this level of opposition. This is a huge step up for him against a guy who also is maybe the best band of waiting the world right now. This is a top level fight happening with the biggest stakes possible

because the winner of this will get a title shot and both sides of it are interesting and dope. Like this is the like I said, it's the exact opposite of what John's doing. That's why I respect the shit on Corey Sanagan. Jose, you must love this fight, right? This fight rules. This fight slaps.

Corey Sanhagan is there are a few fighters in this industry that I respect more than Corey Sagan both in and out of the octagon we've had a lot of great conversations about non-MMA things oddly enough he while he was in the middle like he was getting ready to weigh in

remember on the MMA hour yesterday he was discussing how he kind of missed time to sleep and weight cut schedule with the press conference before we fought Peter Yon which I which was my pick for fight of the year that year Peter Yon versus Corey Yon Sanhagen and i think that purion that fought corey sanhagan we all talked about this when we did the ufc 200 watch along party i think that's the best bandway i've ever seen fight and core sanhagen was

right there neck and neck with him for a while core sanhagen was deep into his weight cut looked like he was going to keel over any minute calls me over and has about a 30 minute discussion about why 36 chambers is the best hip-hop album of all time i'm here for it core sanhagen eventually immediately became one of my guys. He just happens to be one of the best fist fighters in the world. And yeah, I'm with all you guys. Like there's, I don't know how you can not respect Corey Sanhagen. Like even Sean O'Malley, I remember when this original announcement was made last year,

Sean O'Malley was like, I just don't understand what Corey's doing because that is such a risky situation for not a lot of attention. Corey Sanhagen could be the best band of weight in the world right now. Umar could be the best band way in the world right now. I think this is, I think Corey's getting him at the perfect time because we haven't seen Umar fight five rounds. We've not seen him fight anyone in the top 10, let alone top five. Corey's been fighting guys in the top 10, top five for the last several years. He's set himself on the MMA hour.

He's probably on the back half of his career in the second chapter. When did he make his UFC debut? 2016, 2017. and he just kind of skyrocketed up and immediately got compared to Dominic Cruz so he's been kind of earmarked as one of these future title contenders for years. If he beats Umar, no brainer, title shot.

Umar beats Corey Sanhagen, no brainer he deserves a title shot. I think this is a perfect fight for Abu Dhabi. I think it's a perfect five round main event. Much respect for Corey Sanhagen, much respect for Umar Nirmagamade of. I think this is the definition of absolute

high level martial arts at its finest. Yep. This is a must make fight. We're getting it. Everyone gets out no points. It's a beautiful thing. Speaking of points, let's award one for round two before we move on to round three. UFC heading to St. Louis, Missouri.

Let's see. This comparison is that same Corey's journeyman just trying to get the belt. John is the champion thinking about creating the biggest legacy. Please, Jed, respond. To your buddy Cross, by the way, he's back. Cross, your first take was better than this one. This is like, this is just a simpleton take

and that's okay. Like I said, nothing wrong. being dumb. A lot of people in the comments coming with the energy of can't believe you call someone who fights a coward like one, I don't know if you know what cowardice is, but it does have anything really do with fighting. And I just think most of you probably haven't been in fights. Fighting don't hurt. It's fine. Like it sucks, but it's fine. There's cowardice's levels. Cross, this is just, sure, that is a way to approach this. And it's not necessarily a wrong view to have. But I would just ask you to look inward, Cross, and be like, why am I so okay with John just feeding me a pile of bullshit for his best interests.

Why am I not more selfishly wanting him to do the thing that is the standard practice across the sport as a whole? And B, certainly the more entertaining better option for me as a consumer. You're allowed to think both of those things. You're allowed to think it would be much cooler to watch him fight the actual other best heavyweight in the world and to settle this. As they have done, time in memoriam when there's been an interim champion. He's fought the heavyweight champion, and they have unified the titles.

And so any opinion that is like, it's fine, John's doing this. Like, again, this is terrific prize fighting. John's doing a plus prize fighting. You shouldn't give a shit about that. You should give a shit about the best product for you to view. And that's just that simple. All right. Well, here we go.

Point for round two goes to Cross his best bud, Jedbushu. Nicely done. One to one. and just brings a a fever, a fever pitch to this discussion. And we'll see what ends up happening in the heavyweight division.

Shout out to Umar. Shout out to Corey Sanhagan. That fight is, as Jose said, is going to slap. UFC heading to St. Louis this weekend. Yes. Back to the gateway to the west.

And in the main event, we get Derek Lewis versus Rodrigo Nassimento. When St. Louis came a calling, the governing body, called the UFC and said, dude, you got to give us Rodrigo Nassimento in this main event.

I don't care who he fights. You got to give it to us. I think it went the other way. Yeah. Boy, oh boy, the UFC deliverer. We got Joaquin Buckley shooting his shot. He doesn't get the headliner. He gets the co-main event against Nersaltin Ruzabayev, who's moving down to 170 on super short notice.

And we'll talk about that in a little bit more. But Jose, coming off of UFC 301, again, not a ton of buzz. We're not going to really remember this one moving forward outside of just a hardcore fun watch. Do you like this card? Does this one scream if I had other things to do? I'm skipping them to watch UFC St. Louis. No, no, it doesn't. There are very fun fight.

This is one of those rare, this is basically an apex card in St. Louis. Like, I'm here for Chase Hooper versus whoever. I'm here for Alex Ceres versus Sean Woodson. Like I like Terrence McKinney, Tabitha Ritchie, Tisha Pennington. it will be a fun fight, but like there's not a whole lot of title implications, top five matchups, oh, the winner of this will be a number one contender fight. It's just not going to happen. It just seems like they promised St. Louis something, and there were a lot of fights that they

needed to make that they threw on this call. What was the original co-man event? Was it the Manifield-Ullberg fight? Yes. Like, Allberg was supposed to fight Dominic Reyes. That fight probably would have made more sense because Carlos Olberg would have beaten a guy that, you know, beat the guy that. that Jed loved so much John Jones.

Al Seris has been in the U.C. forever. Sean Woodson, like, won, but a lot of people think he lost his last fight. I thought he won. And then there's just names that people are like, I don't know why they put Terrence McKinning on the prelims. He's never been in a boring fight. And I don't know. It's not the best fight card.

It's not even the best main event, obviously, was the Nassi Man. Anytime you get heavyweights pulling off like multiple split decisions in a row, that just screams like, oh, you're just going to get knocked out by Derek Lewis real quick, which I guess is a cool thing. We could see some cool Derek Lewis flying knees right out of the gate again. Derek Lewis had a fun media day, but this isn't, this is not anything special. I'm sorry. Chad, Michoulin star for this one?

Or is this a FAR card? This is a Ford system. Boy, it's a good FARCard. Like, this doesn't have a Michoulin. Actually, it maybe would rise. It probably shouldn't. But there are two things going really well for this. One, Derek St. Louis is about to deliver a note knockout, and everyone's going to be pumped about it.

Like, I don't know if you've had a chance to listen to No Best Party this week. Connor was not on his game and realized that Derek Lewis and St. Louis have that overlap there until, like, in the middle of the show. It was great. He's going to do Derek Lewis things. Fat Pat's going to come on the speaker. He's going to come. He's going to knock a dude out. He's going to do the Black Beast celebration, take his pants off.

probably say something quirky and hilarious into the microphone and the evening will end well and mostly Mike there's one fight on this fight card that speaks to me at a molecular level and it's not the fight you're thinking of Mike because it's it's tab with the Ricci versus Tisha Pennington formerly Tisha Torres because what I discovered when I was doing this and what came to me is that this is baby shark versus the tiny tornado. So that fight is the tiny sharknado. And I couldn't be more happy about a thing in my life than the hours I spent researching sharknato

after I discovered that this was happening. This is, that's quality matchmaking in my book. Do you have a bet on that fight? You have to, right? I have a bet on that fight. I've taken, I've taken Tabitha Ritchie because the shark, the shark is more important than the NATO in Shark NATO.

If it was just Twister, the movies doesn't hit as hard, but because it is shark twister functionally. Also, I don't know if you guys know a lot about the Shark Nato universe, there's so much more to it than you think. How many are there? Shark Nato films. I thought you were about to say three.

No, there are six Shark Nato films. There are three spin-off films. Lavalantula, which is fire-breathing tarantulas functionally like a volcano tarantula. Yes, in the sixth Sharknado film, they go back in time.

Ben Franklin is a character in the sixth Sharknato film. It's, what a universe. What I mean, the last franchise dominates, but. What was that last amalgamation of words? The fire breathing spiders? Yeah, gigantic fire breathing tarantulas, Lavalantula. So it's, they took Sharknado and they're like, what if we did volcano, plus giant spiders.

It worked for Shark, it worked for Twister and Jaws. Let's do this other combo. So now we need like ice and we need an ice creature now. It's a complete the trilogy of elements. Ice snake. I mean, feels like Anaconda plus something like that.

I mean, there's. Avalanche. Ooh. Snake avalanche? Just an avalanche. Just an avalanche. Anaconda lanch. There's something.

in there. We can work on this. We workshop this. There are six of these films. I had no idea until I went into it. It was the best two hours I've spent in a long time. Aren't there like five Squirpian King movies too? So Shark Nato surpassed. There are several of those as well. I don't know how many,

but I know there are several of them. I'm pretty sure Roy Nelson is in one of them. That would absolutely track with what I know of that universe. Jed, I think you just came up once the new Shark Nato movie gets released. Yeah. I think you have an article to write for M-A fighting.

I almost, like, 4,000 later. I probably, this thing, I mean, I have to go watch the, I watched the first one because like everyone watched it at that period of their time. It came on sci-fi. It was free. What else are you doing? I had no idea that there was one where they went back in time. Also, the Shark Nato movie names, let me, let me pull these up because it's,

they're a couple of absolute bangers. Shark Nato 5 is called Global Swarming. What an A-plus name for a film. Oh, my God. I was also right, Jed, for your next MMA cinema thing. Scorpion King 4, Quest for Power, has Roy Nelson, Joyce, and Bigfoot Silva. And oddly enough, Rutger Hauer, star of Blaseman. Like, it's also in that movie.

So I feel like that you got to have that. Wow. Wow. Last thing on the Shark Nato franchise, the 10th anniversary, they did a theatrical release for Shark Nato, and the poster just says more sharks, more NATO. And it's- Perfect. It's Chef's Kiss. Like, these people knew exactly what they were doing.

I respect the shit out of them. Yeah, I think some of those people might be working for Fight Circus right now because just the concepts and things they put together. I mean, it's just fantastic. The original Shark Nato poster is a shark in a. a tornado like Twister and it just says Nuff said. These people are geniuses. Unbelievable.

There's so much hype around that movie. We could talk about Shark Nato and the history of that film and all the other movies we can make of that ilk another time. But Jed, the main event. It's my favorite part of the year because of this, though. Okay. So if there's a storyline that you have your eye on,

and it's not the main event. There's just no way. unless you are just deeply interested in the rise of Rodrigo Nassimento, which there are some people out there who just might be. What's the biggest storyline for you? And I'm not allowed to talk about baby sharknato, I assume. If that's what it is, then please. I mean, that's the biggest storyline, but we already talked about that for the last 10 minutes,

so we can move beyond that. A co-main event has some intrigue, but I'm going to go with the lone heavyweight fight just because Rubles-Sespania is dope. I mean, he's fought four times. Yeah, he's a very, very big fellow. And moves surprisingly quick for such a big fellow and hits people really, really hard. One could say that he is also a man who boops.

And I enjoyed his first fight a great deal. And now he's taking on Walter Cortez-A-Costa, who is like nominally a boxer, but mostly just kind of bad. And I think he's going to get booped real bad. and that's going to be awesome because then there's so much opportunity for a man with Roblista's sort of background, right? Like an Olympian, a guy, a Karateka or whatever, like a very accomplished martial artist coming in here, certainly older, but gets to come in here, he puts another highlight,

all right, you've done it twice. At heavyweight, kind of doesn't matter if you maybe aren't the most well-rounded fist fighter that's ever lived, as long as you got certain set of skills and those skills are, can kind of get you far. And so he goes out here and boops WCA real fast. Then we can start talking about, I don't know, just out of nowhere, Roblesus versus Giresignor Rosenstrike, which would just be a delightful bit of anarchy. And then suddenly this man who has five professional fights or something that's astronomically

low is now like, oh, I knock out Giorzino, I'm a top 10 heavyweight. There's a world where he could be the heavyweight Alex Pereira. And at that point, I bet John would want to fight him because, you know, he can't do any of the other parts of the fist fighting. But in a card that doesn't have like a lot of, there's one other storyline that I would draw to. But it's not nearly as cool as Robis-Spaña, who is a huge man who boops people with hard. Jose, what do you get your eye on? In terms of another fight to watch, probably Bruce Leroy versus Sean Woodson. I mean, Alex O'Saharis, I think made his UFC debut in 2000.

2011 was he he was on that ultimate season of the ultimate fighter and Once Matt Brown announced his retirement I kind of went back and I'm like who's the longest tenured Tough veteran at this point? I think I believe it's Brad Tavares I believe it's Brad Tavares has to be that has but Alis Casares and Michael Johnson are way up there as well in terms of tough veterans that are still on the USC roster not just actively fighting and Sean Woodson, I believe, made his his MMA debut in 2016, 2017. So Alex Casas had already been in the UFC

for five, six years before Sean Woodson even made his pro debut. Alex Casares doesn't have the best record, but he's fought in a lot of high-level guys and a lot of different weight classes. I really like speaking with Alex Ceres. His social media presence leaves much to be desired. Me and him don't really see eye-to-eye

and most sociological or economical things of the world. But me and him can talk about anime and kung fu movies for a long time. So we have that. And I feel like I've been covering him. Actually, I have. The first article I ever wrote for ArizonaSports.com when I was in college was an interview on Alex Ceres. So I feel some sort of connection with him. Sean Woodson is, was it Sean Woodson that calls me out on when you interviewed him, Mike?

Because I asked him about Max Holloway at a media scrum. And he recognized me from one of these shows. MMA fighting. So anyone that's any UFC fighter that's watching between the links or preview or post shows

all the time, hello Sean Woodson and then calls me out I also have some sort of emotional connection to you too because I've only had a nice thing actually we both had

great things say about each other in person he has a weird neck tattoo I had a whole interview with him just about his weird neck tattoo so yeah bad tattoos and kung fu and anime

checks all the boxes for me in a fight yes I remember that What's his neck tattoo? It says something silly, but he like got it. It's like one of his, it might have been his first tattoo. I don't know, but we interviewed him in Boston, and he's like, I got it and then tried to hide it from my mom. I'm like, you got a tattoo on your throat and tried to hide it from your mom.

Have fun with that. Oh, yes. That's when you. Fear no man. Fear no man. That's what it is. Yep. He's no coward.

It's a good fight. That's going to be a good fight. Alex Casarra. A lot of people feel like Sean Woodson's going to kind of run away with this one because she's so big, but this is, I mean, these are the types of fights Alex Casares play some other 100%. Is Sean Woodson from St. Louis? Does he have the arch

tattoo on his stomach? That's hard. I have no idea about that, but he is from St. Louis. Yeah, I think he has the arch with the skyline on the stomach, with like a money sign underneath it or something. Or actually, now that I say money sign, it's probably just the St. Louis symbol from, you know, the Cardinals, like the STL.

Oh, probably is that, yeah. Yeah, that would make sense. We're going to have, obviously, we're going to talk a little bit more about this card tomorrow, a little more in depth, but boy, Joaquin Buckley is a big story for me. Yeah, I mean, it's not going to happen though, Mike. Okay, you're convinced words by if I'm making weight. Not on this short notice. He's fought it well to it before.

Also, when I was researching, apparently his debut was a lightweight, which is a 65 lightweight is a terrifying concept. So she didn't consider. But he's just not making well to it. to wait on like four weeks or whatever it is. I'll believe in what it happens, but I don't, I think this right's not going to go through. No.

I'm going to tend to be a little more positive. We're going to see it and we're going to see Joaquin Buckley's made of. He's basically putting it all in the line here. And like, I know there are bigger fights down the road for him. But when he kind of drew all this up after beating Vicente-Luke, I assume Nersulton Ruzabayev was not the guy he expected to fight. It's a tough-ass fight against a really good fight. who's on a great streak.

It just finishes dudes, very tall. And if he loses the fight, it's going to be to a guy that not a lot of people know. And we'll see what he does. If he goes out there and wins and finishes Rizabayev and makes a great callout, then everything, I'm going to say,

everything I said about him is wrong, but he will prove me wrong in a lot of ways. So I will be watching that fight very, very closely, obviously, and we'll see how it all plays out. Let's move on to more MMA fights, but this time two MMA fighters fighting in the boxing ring just on a different date than we thought. Point for round three goes to Jose Youngs.

Nicely done, two to one. Nice. Shark Dato was great. It was great. That sounds terrifying. Wasn't Will Chope like a 6-4 featherweight? He's a tall boy. He was a tall boy.

I remember doing a deep day on him and he had like nine fights in like two years once. I'm like, that doesn't be possible for a 6-4 featherweight. Max Holloway being half at him in his life. Also just an unacceptable level of height to weight ratio there. Jeez. Yes. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything.

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Let yourself run. Lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Draining treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Well, guys, Nate Diaz, Jorge Mazdal, FanMeo, they did the thing. They did the very smart thing. They did the wise thing. Weitz are happening June 1st anymore. The boxing match, that big event, no longer happening in L.A.

It's happening in Anaheim now. It's no longer happening June 1st, which also shares the day with some big boxing events. and of course UFC 302, now happening July 6th. And there are things happening that day too. WWE's got, I think, money in the bank that day and then, of course, Stevenson's boxing in Newark that evening as well. But they're not sharing it with 3UFC 302, so at least they're going to be able to get the MMA fan base

to at least tune in more so than they would have on June 1st. So Jose, I'll start with you. How much does the date change impact your interest of the fight now that? Because we have to look at it from a different percentage. perspective because when we saw June 1st and they announced this fight, the first thought we had was, oh, there's 8 million other things happening this day. It's going to be a long, it's going to be a freaking marathon trying to cover the boxing, 302, and this fight. Now they took that off the table. We obviously lost better BF anyway. So that's another thing that's kind of off the tail for June 1st. They're going to rebook that. But does this change things for you in terms of how you view the events, the matchup now that it's happening a little over a month after it was originally scheduled? Probably because since the June 1st UFC pay-for-view is in Newark, I was going to that anyway. So I don't know how much I would have been able to watch the Diaz Mazur-Dal match anyway

because I would have been backstage at UFC 302 doing my best to watch it. I mean, it'll be obviously it'll be infinitely easier to cover. I'm sure it's also the week after Connor and Chandler, correct, like the weekend after. So there's more things to talk about. If Connor wins and Nate Diaz is about to fight, everything is going to be about Connor. Well, even to Jorge, because Jorge's had his issues with Connor as well. And if Connor is indeed, have what, two, three fights left on his contract. And all of a sudden we're already selling a Connor McGregor boxing match between Nate or Jorge the weekend after.

It'll only generate clicks and will only generate more interest. So fans will probably be much more interested. I'm not having a fight. It was supposed to be at the forum, correct? supposed to be at the Kia Forum. That was the original venue. The forum is just, it's obviously older than the Honda Center in Anaheim, but the forum is just a way better venue to watch a boxing match,

just because of the history, it's in Englewood, it's closer to things. Anaheim has Disneyland, and that's about it. So, yes, I am more interested. I think it looks bad if you're going to change day. What did Chale say? Like, oh, if they changed day, the fights canceled. That's just how he goes. It's just how it is. The James fight, they might as well can't.

I'm not quite on that level, but it's definitely generated more injuries because there's going to be less things going on, less eyeballs pulled. They should have done this date and venue to begin with. I'm sure people are already, if you were excited for this, planning your lives around going to the forum. Casey can no longer like walk there because he lives like, not that he was going to walk there. He basically lives like, what, a stone's throw away from the forum. now he's got to go all the way to Anaheim a bunch. But it'll be better for the site, better for coverage, better for fans, because now they can watch all of their favorite fighters on different days,

and it'll just be the Conn McGregor Talk Fight Week leading up to that. Jed, does this change anything for you? I mean, obviously this is the smart decision to make, and as Jose said, this was like really the only decision to make, and it was probably the decision to have been made well before they announced June 1st to begin with. But does this change things for you now that it's not June 1st? Sure. I mean, all the stuff is right, right? This was the correct decision. It is one of those things where you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater, right? Like you don't throw bad money after good money. You had to do this. It sucks that they did it in this timeline. Specifically, too, when you hear Mossboro give his interviews to Ariel and kind of other places, he specifically was like, yeah, we don't want to go head to head with the UFC. Nate was insisting on this date. I'm not sure why.

It's bad business, but oh, well, he knew it. And ostensibly, that was part of the negotiations. And Nate has finally acquiesced, are we got to move this? Again, it is better to not kind of dig your heels in and take this out. But at the same time, like, I'm sure they had already sold tickets to the forum. And fans were preparing for that. And I don't know if you guys are aware of this. June 1st and July 6th are two entirely different dates.

They're not remotely near each other. They are separated by a month. And so people who had already purchased tickets and were planning, all right, we're going to go watch this event on June 1st. Actually, it's like, it's a month later, roughly the same location, at least geographically enough, that it's not like, oh, we're actually doing it in Miami now. So like, there's that part too, but it's still like, hey, we are doing it July 4th weekend. Do you already have plans with your family? Well, you can no longer come to this event, I guess. It was bad process to get here, and so it's just really stupid that it took whatever ended up making it happen.

But ultimately, certainly for the at-home viewer and for us, it's going to be much better because instead of that being probably the second biggest thing for us at least happening that weekend, or maybe even the third, based on how much boxing interest is going on around then. now we're talking about okay this is a relatively open weekend i don't think there's any there's nothing that i can think of that comes to mind that's counter programming them and so it's just a holiday weekend and so that should like that's obviously where this should have happened all along so big picture it's the right move the fact that what it it was so long and stupid to get here is annoying but whatever we're past it now we're on to new business and that business will take place July 6th, Honda Center, Anaheim, California, Nate Diaz, Jorge, Mazzadol, second meeting, this time in the boxing ring. Let's move on.

The point for round four goes to Jed Mishu, two to two. I wanted a rhyme. That's how it worked out. So here we go. Time for the knocker round. One question, one minute apiece. This will decide it all. Jed, what are we doing here?

You want to go first? B.C. is not here. So maybe you want to go back to the old school ways of going first. first because you don't have to deal with BC going for three and a half minutes longer than he needs to. No, we'll pass just because I think I actually might know what you're going to ask. And I realize it's about a thing I haven't paid attention to. So I need to figure that out real fast. Probably not because I just thought of it 25 seconds ago.

Oh, well, then okay. And it's theft. I mean, it's definitely theft. It's just talking about. It's definitely theft. So we'll go to Jose. We'll go to Jose. It is theft because I'm stealing this directly from the MMA hour.

Ariel brought something up, asked a few people about this, and it got me to thinking, and I might as well present it to you guys here to make your arguments. The question that Ariel presented is if you could invest in one company right now, whether it be BKFC or PFL, who would you put your money towards and why? And I love this question. I think you can make prime, compelling cases for both. BKFC has definitely got a lot more buzz right now. PFL slowly moving

into different things. Hopefully they can sign some more names. But if you had $100,000 of free investment money, but you can only put that money towards one promotion, are you choosing BKFC or are you choosing PFL? One minute on the clock, go. You're muted. I lost five seconds. Don't even need it. Give them 10 more seconds. Don't even need it. I'm choosing BKFC and not because I think it's a better product or has a better future. I think it's a worse products than PFL in terms of actual competition in sports. Yes, Mike Perry is very exciting, but when a bunch of fights end with freak injuries and you have more fights in the stands than in the in the ring, that's silly. I'm only choosing BKFC because now that Con McGregor is an investor, he at one point was the highest

and richest and highest earning athlete on planet Earth more than Christiana Ronaldo, which is just crazy to think that an MMA fighter did that. Con McGregor seems to have, I don't know if it's him or people around him telling him to make smart business decisions not smart life decision business decisions so i'm going to hitch my ride to conne grueger because he has the proofing track record pfl yeah they have francis and jake paul and all these other things their product is not great i like m a may more than bare knuckle connor makes more money you'll have more return on investment i mean just a business savvy answer right there yes let's go over to jed also r ip r jimerson news just came out that one glove, Jimerson passed away.

That sucks, man. I just saw that myself. Yeah, tough. Tough news. Met Art a couple times. Super nice guy. Still wears the one glove to this day or did to every time I saw him, just living the gimmick.

And yeah, much respect to an OG, rest and peace to Art. Jimerson, condolences to the family. Now, Jed, I know it's tough to transition. To actually have to answer a question after that. But here we are. This is why you are the man who's been on the show in competition now 85. This is now the 86th time. And counting the Q&As, you've probably been on the show well over 100.

But here we go. You got $100,000. You can only choose one. Is it BKFC? Is it PFL? Where are you going? Why? Go.

So if it's 100 grand, I'm definitely going to BKFC. A lot of what Jose said is fair. Also, I think they're going to use 100 grand better than PFL is going to use it. They like, I mean, this is a promotion we're talking about where the own Feldman put three mortgages on his house to get a card over the line, like 100K and PFL. Honestly, that bankrolls like a whole event, if not multiple events outside of a Mike Perry Knucklemania kind of event. They can just use that money better.

And I do think they're more popular. They just are. They draw more interest broadly. They can get further. Now, if instead you're like, hey, you are suddenly Turkey out of Sheik and you got all the money in the world, who are you banking? I would put it into PFL for two reasons. One, I desperately want them to be a successful product because the UFC needs somebody to hold their feet to the fire and PFL is the best bet we got. And two, if I gave them more than a hundred grand, I might get

some say in their promotion and get them to do things right instead of doing things stupid. And they desperately need a czar of common sense in BFL. There's your answers. There's your answer right there. So what's the dollar figure, Jed, that would like take you to the next level? I mean, I realize I realize $100,000 is like nothing and I realize that like mid asking the question, but in both of these scenarios, I'm assuming I can't just keep the money, which would be the choice I would make. Because I would not feel either as a sound investment of my of my dollars. But I don't know, like 10 million probably buys me a way into making. decisions at BFL. Okay.

Fair. You wouldn't take that 10 million. You'd choose PFL over BKFC with 10 million. Yes. Okay. More so, just so you could have some power and some say. And I also believe that their product is more necessary than BKFCs. I think if you gave BKFC 10 million, they would just, like, it would be great.

And if you like BKSC, cool, but it would just be more BKFC. Whereas if you could give PFCs, 10 million maybe you can make it a better product fair all right cash your votes everybody get them in get them in hot first thing i'm doing as leader of either of these is i am teaching the cameraman pfl how it's a white balance and i'm getting rid of that idiotic road like camera that spins around the oh you don't like to no it's absolutely no it's absolutely sucks and i hate it and i hate it and And every time I see it, I go, this sucks. But at least the cameraman knows how to white balance and color correct,

unlike the people at PFL. What would be your first tour of business, Jen? Oh, more graphics and stats. I just have more of them on the POS. We need more. I mean, actually, my first thing would be getting rid of punching speed as the most useless thing I've ever seen. And honestly, the first order of business would be the power bar, Mike.

We all know this. Oh, yeah. You would revolutionize the industry. I've been, I mean, look, Kayla's gone now, so the wheel of Kayla is no more, but I loved that idea where Kayla just fought whoever she was fighting and you had to spin the wheel and whatever it landed on. That was the gimmick of the match. Kayla had one hand tied behind her back. You know the Flitchardis does have a wheel, right? I'm sure they have one.

They do. It's terrific. It's an unbelievable thing. Yeah. I mean, the wheels is, the wheels are just. the best. I mean, it makes everything better. It took Shaheen like three years to figure this out, but he is now on board with the wheel making everything better. It just, it just does. Casey, do we have a winner? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I wonder who it is.

We're all winners because of Shark Nato, guys. Baby Shark Native is the best. This is probably the lava lamp, the lava lamp tarantulas or whatever you call it. I like how. What is the, I forgot. So I looked up the Shark Nato lore and I learned that Shark Nato's four, Shark Nato's Four. Shark Nato 4 is called Shark Nato 4, oh hell no, which is a great name. Or the Fourth Awakens is the ultimate. Oh, no, that's a fair one.

Shark Nato 3, oh hell no. Oh, three is oh no, okay. Yeah. And then Lava Lantula, the second Lava Lantia, Lava Lantia, Lava Lantia. The Lanchola is two lava, two lancela, which is a great. It's the best. It's the best name of all time. That's a good one, two lava, two lancela.

Yeah, that's good. These people are geniuses. Shark Nato, heart of sharkness. Unbelievable name. It's absolutely unbelievable name for a movie. The third Lava Lantula is called 2025 Armageddon, and it is a 25th anniversary of crossover events of the asylum, which I don't know what that is, but it sounds crazy. Who knows?

Who knows what any of these? things are. It's the best. Also, they put out one a year for five years, which is crazy. Dude, sci-fi channel got to keep making that money. All right. Your winner today with 69% of the votes. Nice. Nice. I get it. You're drawn option. Jed Mishu. I don't believe. Hey, Jed Bishu. Nicely done. Shark Nato rules all.

By the way, Jed, I might as well just let you know and let you in on what is just transpired over the last few minutes in the Twitter world. Guess is tweeting again. John Jones. Someone sent a comment. I was sure it happier. Oh, no. I'm reading it.

Do you agree with people saying you're holding up the division now? Two tweets from John Jones. One, no, I think it's great to see the UFC showing such a level of respect to their champion athletes. I've dedicated my entire adult life to the sport. I think I'm allowed to get hurt once. This injury is supposed to take up to a year to heal, but I'm already back in pre-jured. Progression. Tweet two. And besides, there's not many people in the heavyweight division right now that are capable of creating super fights. If Alex doesn't move up in the near future, you're not really missing out on much. The belt will just be tossed around like usual business.

There you go. Now take your 30 seconds. In lieu of speaking on John Jones the Coward, I decided I'd read you the Lavalantula quick biop here, which is the television film that takes place after a series of volcanic eruptions in Los Angeles unleashed a swarm of giant lava-breathing tarantulas. I don't know what else you need to watch a movie, but you should certainly go watch Lavalantula.

This individual called Lazy Bed in our chat had three ideas. Wolf a cane, which I assume is a hurricane of wolves. Gator quake, which is a bunch of alligators coming out

of the ground after another quake. Well, that's a good one. And then Viper Blizzard, which sounds like snakes meets blizzard, which sounds also. I think Anaconda and Avalanche has something there,

but Gator Quake is A plus work, Laceybed. I'm deeply proud of that one. Yeah, Wolfa Kane, don't love. Gatorquake is great and Vipar Blizzard just seems like a band that Casey would go see later on tonight.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's absolutely true. That would just rock the shit out of the place. I love this because this is like when snakes in a plane happened and then you got to think about like bears on a submarine and stuff like that. Just like we make our own fun ones. This is Gatorquake's a great one. I might write Gator Quake

and pitch it to SciFat. I'm sure they would pay $4. I feel like you could just I feel like you could add lib an entire Gator quake movie and it'd still be great. Yeah. Now you have your answer. Can I tell you guys my hundred grand? Can I tell you guys my actual,

I have an actual idea for a movie that I think would be the best movie of all time. Oh, please. It's a movie about man-eating hippopotamuses that's just called Hungry Hungry Hippos. It's the best movie that I've ever thought of. How is no one's a bunch of people? How is this not a movie? How is Hungry, Hungry Hi was Hungry Hi Pippos the movie not a movie? be. It's the best.

Oh, my God. It seems like such a no-brainer for this streaming universe we now live in. Wow. I'll work on that and I'll get to work on Gator Quake and LazyBed. You can have some of my $5 royalties for that one. Do I get a role in either of these films? Oh, absolutely. I don't think we're going to put Dana White and Gator Quake. You're right, because Mike's going to plan. I'm a play day.

according to them. I mean, yeah, maybe. All right, I'll take it. I'll take it. I'm really, really happy with Gator Quirk. Well done. My fan would be so proud. Hit the music, Casey.

Let's go. Appreciate all of you. You guys are all the best. We'll be back next week. What are we going to be talking about? UFC St. Louis will be over. Oh, yes. We're back to the world's most famous apex, I believe,

from May 18th. And then we get a little bit of a breather before UFC 302. And who the hell knows what else is going to happen in this crazy sport of ours. Preview show coming up tomorrow 1 p.m. Eastern. We'll see you then. For Jose, for Jed, for Casey on the Ones and Tuesday. The iconic voice special in takes you home. I am Mike Heck back next week.

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