MMA Fighting - BTL | Pereira vs. Adesanya 2, Burns vs. Masvidal, UFC 287, UFC/WWE Merger | Fan Q&A Edition

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

With so much going on in the world of combat sports, and with a massive UFC 287 event just days away, this week on Between the Links, we are turning the programming and topics over to you. On a special Q&A edition of BTL, the panel will take your questions about Saturday's UFC pay-per-view event in Miami, the main event for the middleweight title between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya, Jorge Masvidal's homecoming fight with the stakes as high as they can be against Gilbert Burns, the fallout from events in the combat landscape this past weekend, Gamebred Boxing 4, the new merger between the UFC and WWE, and more. This week, host Mike Heck will be joined by Eric "New York Ric" Jackman to answer your questions about the biggest stories in the sport. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic 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

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welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Happy Thursday, everybody. We're live on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel. You can obviously, if you're watching After the Facts, we appreciate that. If you're listening on the podcast network, after the fact, we appreciate that as well. A lot going on in the world of combat sports.

A lot has happened last weekend. A lot has happened this week. And of course, this Saturday, the UFC is back in Miami, Florida, UFC 27. Alex Pereira versus Israel Adisanya, two or four. However you want to define it, we got Gilbert Burns versus Jorge Mazadol, just a stacked main card. And we figured, you know what? There's so much going on right now. Let's just make this the people's edition of Between the Links.

We're going to take your questions the entire time. That's what we're going to do here. And I'm not doing this alone. Joining me is the incomparable. Mr. New York, Rick, and what an honor it is, sir. New York, Rick, how are you? I'm great. What a blessing to be here today.

Even without the competition, it's almost even better. Why fight? Let's just celebrate together. I'm always so happy to see you, Mike. You're a friendly face and always so glad to be with you and Casey every single time. I can do it. So thank you for having it. Yeah. I mean, to be perfectly honest, I've been consumed with this feature that dropped today. So I didn't really even like put a show together. So I just reached out to New York, I'm like,

you know, let's just do a Q&A. Let's let the peeps dictate what we're going to talk about. And it just seems like the gentlemanly thing to do. Let the fighters fight and we'll just talk about stuff. I think that's a fun way to do things on this Thursday, wouldn't you say? I'm with you. I'm all here for the positivity. All right, so your question is about 287, the main event, the co-main event, other fights on the card. We could talk about Bellator PFL game bread boxing. Hell, if you want to jump on the fight circus train, I don't blame you. We could talk UFC-WE merger, whatever is on your mind.

We could talk about it. We'll discuss all of it here. So we have the wonderful E. Casey Liden on the ones and twos, moderating the chat, and he'll be pulling your questions on the screen. So let's have some fun. Do we have any questions? God, I hope so. All right, we'll start with Joe D.

New Yorkerick. If Izzy wins a great fight, does Alex get the immediate rematch? I think it depends on how the fight goes. A lot of times, it's the reigning champion who gets the rematch, whereas Alex, you know, just took the belt in his last fight. So I don't know that it would be an immediate rematch. That doesn't seem to be as a short as the long reigning champion. and gets the immediate rematch. But the rivalry is so good

and there's so much meat on that bone that I think it'd be interesting to go to that well. The problem is you've got, you know, guys like Robert Whitaker, Paulo Costa and others just waiting in the wings and saying what's going on with my career.

So it'd be interesting to see. I wouldn't be shocked, but I almost wouldn't expect it, especially if Izzy has a dominant performance. I think it would be a situation where Alex has to kind of build himself back up. but if it's a close fight, you think they'll run it back.

If it's close, then it feels like, yeah, maybe they run it back again. It has, look, I don't want to sound like a broker record, but I've talked about this many times.

Number one and number two, when they're clear, when they're this clear, I think you have to kind of go to that well. When you have Devis and Figuero and you have Brandon Moreno, and they've put on the fights that they've had, you kind of have to get until there's a resolution. And in my mind,

If Israel Adasanya can come out and win this fight, there's a case to be made to do it one more time. So I'd be okay. But yeah, if you're Robert Whitaker, if you're Apollo Costa, hell, if you're even Hamzat Shemayev, who seems to be a middleweight at this point, you're wondering what's next. Maybe those guys can be matched up against each other in some configuration. I would not be shocked to see it. But if Izzy comes out and dominates, I feel like it might be a situation where Alex has to face another contender. I think they're going to go back to it either way, honestly, just because unless they both just declare after the fight, we're both going to 205, we're done, and then we can, like, do it at 205 for the third one. I mean, otherwise, like, the UFC has brilliantly built this up to get to this point, and I feel like they're just not going to go away from it.

Because Pereira is just, he's not a human being. The fact that he makes 185 at all is just astounding to me. And the longer his career progresses, the less likely it's going to be that he's going to be able to consistently make 185. So the time period in order to do this and complete this rivalry and however you want to do it, there's not a lot of time left. So I feel like if Izzy goes out there and, I mean,

if he just bulldozes him and pitches an Anderson Silva, Chris Leibin perfect game, then maybe that's something different. But I don't expect that to happen. I feel like if that happens, there will be a narrative that forms that, like, you know, Alex got lucky in that first, in that first MMA fight. It'll be like, Alex, you know, Izzy was winning the whole time and Alex kind of got him.

If Izzy smokes him in this next one, I can easily see that kind of thing happen. Alex got rushed to the title shop because of his, because of his history with Izzy. He got in there. He was losing the whole time and then he found a miracle. And Izzy was the right. I can see it forming. To be honest, the factor that we didn't mention, and I think is actually the more important factor, other than storylines, is how does this pay-per-view do. This pay-per-view is headlined by Israel-A-Sanya versus Alex Pereira. If this

pay-per-view does well, yeah, line that third one up. Why not, right? Like, let's keep the hot hand and keep rolling. If this one doesn't do so hot, it'd be hard for me to see them going straight back to it, especially if Izzy Dominates. So I think there's a lot of things that we need to see after this week to determine that. I like the question. Could be a lot. And if Alex Brewera wins, then it's moot because we're probably part Whitaker. And and Hamzaa could fight Paul Costa and the division can go that way. I'm sure we're going to get this question, but we might as well just throw it out there now to you, Rick.

What happens to Izzy if he loses this fight? Because a lot of people bring up, you know, he's done. I mean, obviously as long as Pereira is the champion, he ain't getting it. There you go. Thank you, Donnie. What happens if Izzy loses again? As long as Pereer is the champion,

it's going to be a tough sell to get him back in there unless out of a sudden just goes on a four-and-o run and Pereira is still running people over, but I mean, what do we do now? Does he just hope that they booked the Whitaker fight and that Whitaker wins? Because he does have two wins over Rob, and I'm sure Rob would want that one back,

and I always talked about it before. So what happens if he loses his fight? That would definitely be his best path to claiming a championship, but it's really going to depend on what Israel Adasanya's motivation is. And I would assume it would be similar to somebody like Kamara Usman,

as we just saw with Leon Edwards, right? He just dropped two against Leon Edwards. does he want to be a welterweight contender anymore? Does he want to try middleweight? Does he want to be in fun money fights? It really depends on the motivation. I think Israel-Ary is somebody who's been very transparent and clear about the fact that he fights for money.

The money's good, but it's really about his passion and his motivation and showcasing what he wants to do and his skills and his martial arts. So I think if what he'll want is he'll want to fight Alex again, I know that for a fact because he's just that type of dude. but what his motivations will be if he's not able to get that title shot again, I think are unclear. Like, he's going to have to sit with that one for a little bit and really figure out what's next for him. What I'd like to see is him against any of those other middleweights that are kind of new and refreshed.

Like, I wouldn't mind a rematch with Policosta. And quite frankly, I wouldn't mind another Whitaker fight after the way the last one went. It was pretty dang close. And I think that those two, before Alex entered the picture, were the clear number one and number two. And then there's the Hamzat challenge that's out there for everybody. So I think there's still some interesting fights for Israel at a middleweight, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him walk away. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go up to 205.

I wouldn't see him be surprised if he wants to go box. There's a million things that I could see for Israel to Sanya. It's really going to be like what his passion level is after the fight. Yeah, and I don't know. I have no insight into that. Neither do I. But who knows? Maybe after the fight, he'll jump on the.

the biggest MMA show of all time, the MMA hour, and we'll get answers to those questions. I don't think he's done. I'll say that. I don't think he's done. I don't think he just walks away. There's a lot of money to be made. There's a lot of challenges for him. I think he can find a challenge for himself. I don't think it's just, I'm good and calling it a career. Maybe he could take three years off and put on 50 pounds and go find John Jones. We could settle that beef. So a lot of compelling storylines of this. fight. What else we got? I love the Scooby-Doo, the Scooby-Doo image. David, how bad does

Kelvin Gasolm need a win? Is his job on the line, New York, Rick? I mean, anybody's job is on the line every time they fight in the UFC. Like, you know, there's, there's not a lot of fond sentiment that keeps the UFC from making business decisions. I think Kelvin Gasolm is probably okay. I think he's probably secure from the sense that like when Kelvin Gasolam makes it to the fight, you know you're going to get a good fight. Like Kelvin Gastilum is somebody when you put in there, he's game and you're going to get a good fight. Making it to the fight has always kind of been the issue and always kind of been the struggle.

But yeah, I don't I don't know that I'd be worried too much about Kelvin's job as much as like how many times can he try to rebuild himself and become a contender again before he has to figure out something to do. I'd love to see a guy like Kelvin if I'm playing it forward let's say it is the end of the line I'd love to see a guy like Kelvin in the PFL or Bellator or somewhere like that as a refresh as a new look on his career because how many times can you kind of

churn through the contenders but no I don't I just don't see it he's too exciting a fighter he's got a name people still really get behind him when he makes it to the cage he puts on great fights so I wouldn't be too concerned about Kelvin's job security

I would say it depends on how much he's making, especially with this merger, because you're going to have to cut some costs somewhere, honestly. When you have a big deal like this and you put big things together and you're forming this massive super publicly trading company, usually you have to cut costs in order to make that happen. And if Kelvin's making 150 and 150, not a bad way to go. Now, the normal UFC structure, I would probably, I would agree with you on this because Kelvin, even though he would have lost three in a row in six of seven, there's still value to the man's name. There's a reason why Chris Curtis is fighting Calvin Gassum. You beat Calvin Gasselom.

You're a top 15 guy, if not a little bit better. You can make moves there. It's kind of, there's like two litmus tests at 185 if you're going to be a ranked guy. Gasolm's probably top tier and right below that is a Brad Tavares. That's pretty much where you're at right now. And there's nothing wrong with that. You can make a very good living being those guys,

being the litmus test for the up-and-comers. but Gasselm's name still means something. And I mention like Tom Coughlin and the New York Giants a lot because when Tom Coughlin beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl twice, he could have gone one in 15 for the next eight years and they would have kept him around. And I still think that Gasol-Mata-Sanya fight is an all-time favorite. I think that fight continues to age well.

And that's why I think the leash will be a little bit longer for Kelvin if it's just based on merit and not business. Yeah, you make a great point. the middle of the UFC roster is where we kind of see the fat being cut these days, right? The low end, the bottom is where they stack a lot of these cards with Dana-Wy. Contender Series talent or debutantes or guys on two or three fights into their UFC career. And then the top level is how you make your money on the pay-per-view guys. So that middle tier of the guys who might be getting paid just a little bit more than the value they bring to the card,

those are the ones in danger of potentially being cut. I think Kelvin, though, has enough goodwill that it'll probably keep him around. And as I said, even though he's losing, Kelvin Gasolam's always in a good fight. And I think that you see that time and time in the UFC that they keep guys like that around that can put on shows and have some name value. Completely agree. Well, we'll see what happens. That besides the main event, I think I know where I'm going to land on the main event, I think this is the fight that's the toughest to call for me. Yeah, it is tough.

Yeah, I agree with you. I have no read on it. Very tough fight. None. Absolutely none. Who knows what version of Kelvin Gasol will show up? Goran, if Mazadol gets a spectacular win against Burns and pulls a great promo to Leon in the post fight, what are the chances we hear Dana flip from Colby to George getting the title shot?

I say he does. Are you as confident as Goran is that if Mazadol does all of those things, Dana is showing up to the press are saying, boy, I got egg on my face. I got this one wrong. It's going to be Mazadol. I think the key is the spectacular win. If we see it, I'm fairly confident that there will at least be some question.

There will at least be some hesitance from Dana White to say that we're proceeding with the Colby Covington plan. He may say that initially even, but I think the overwhelming support from the fans that want to see the resolution to that story, I think will sway. opinions in a major way. The promo's there, right? We know if Mazvedal wins. He's grabbing the mic and Leon Edwards is the first name out of his mouth and Colby Covington is the second name out of his mouth. We know that.

There's no doubt. The spectacular win part is the most important. Can he pull that off as a big underdog and get that done? But yeah, like Dana White has consistently said now Dana White's going against his own rules with making fights and putting Colby Covington into a title shot on fight night. but one of his other rules, and let's see if he breaks this one is, I put on, UFC puts on the fights that fans want to see. There's no doubt in my mind, if Jorge Ham Osvidal goes out there

and absolutely starches Gilbert Burns and gets on the mic and calls out Leon Edwards, that is the fight that fans will want to see. So let's see where Dana White's mindset is after that. But the spectacular win part is the hardest part. The promo is the easy part. The spectacular win part's the hard part. I think this is possible. There is a chance that, and I've talked about this before,

I know people think like I hate Dana White. It's just not true. I don't know the man. He's done things that are wrong and we've called out. And much like if I did things wrong, you would call me out and he would call me out. But we both share this besides the bald head. We are stubborn Boston people where if we have our feet planted in the sand about something,

I don't care what you show me, we're going to keep our feet in the sand. Like we're just going to be stubborn as hell and be like, no. Even though everybody's asking me to do this and having me change this, you're just not going to do it out of spite. And I've done this many times in my life.

That's just the stubborn nature that I have. But I do think again, this merger could change things because you got to make some money. You got to put on the biggest fights possible. And if Mazadol comes out of there looking like a star, And if he goes out there and just butchers Gilbert Burns,

he is going to be over like Rover. It is going to be a reaction that we haven't heard in a long time. Like that's going to be gigantic. And if he says the right thing and cuts the right promo, there's a very good chance to do this. On the other end, people, and I know we have staff members to talk about this too. Colby Covington, whether you like him or not, in the world of prize fighting, he is one of the best.

He is one of the best prize fighters. The definition of prize fighting is you take the biggest fights for the most amount of money with the lowest perceived risk. Nobody does that better than Colby Govington. You could possibly convince Colby to wait. He's waited this long already. If the UFC says, look, Colby, just chill out. We'll give you a couple shekels. But you get the winner of this fight.

Either you get Leon or you get Mazadol for the title. Is Colby going to say no to that? Both of those are massive fights. Either way. If Leon just beats Mazadol, which you'll probably be favored to do, then you can still do that fight, end of the year, maybe early next year. And if Mazadol wins, you know the UFC's going to try to go to that well and do Colby Mazadol. Everything that has happened, the storyline, and that will be one of the biggest fights you could possibly make in the UFC right now,

even though I don't think that fight goes any differently than the first one. But it would be a gigantic build. It'd be insane. And again, that's, Colby would make a ton of money. like in the fights that he could win both of those. What if you just ice Mazvedal and say you get the next shot? We're going to do Colby Leon. We're going to do Colby Leon and you get either Colby or Leon that way because he's got a story with both of them.

So you could do that too. I just think you got to strike while you have Leon Edwards versus Mosvidal, which I think has more heat than Colby and Mosvidal, even though, funny enough, they have real, like in real life not promo heat. Like they're in the middle of a lawsuit right now. It's crazy to me that I mean, I'm saying it, but it's, it's boggling my mind as I'm saying it. I think there's more of a fight story between Leon and Mosvidal than there is between Colby and Mazvedal just because of how one-sided that was and we saw it already and it was it was kind of just not a good fight.

You have to strike. You have to do it. Leon Edwards is the champion. You bring it to the UK and you've got, you've got money. You're literally printing money. But you're right. like he's a stubborn man you're a stubborn man i mean you've still got your power slap you know league you're still going over there i tried to talk you out of it you're still going with it but heck of a slap league

we'll be on a sort of streaming platform uh coming soon but well played here's the other thing i think timing's going to play a factor too you mentioned the uk card there have been reports that have come out that leon and coli is targeted for london from what i understand right now that july 22nd card is not meant to be a paper view. Now, things could be, things could change, of course. But here's what we know at least today. Ariel Hawani reported, we're still working on fully confirming this, that Alexander Volcanowski versus Iyer Rodriguez, the featherweight title unification bout is scheduled

for international fight week. It's going to be, who knows, main event, co-main event. Now, I know people, Ariel also said that right, as of right now, there's no talk about John Jones versus Steepa being on that card. obviously things can change. It's April, but the clock's ticking a little bit. We got to kind of make a move. If Mazdal just ices, burns in like a minute and then can turn around and fight

International Fight Week against Leon, that is a tremendous main event. And then you have Volk and Yair is the Co-Main. That's a pretty damn, that's a pretty damn juicy start to an international fight week capper considering all the news and all the press the UFC has gotten over the last week or so with this merger. So, I mean, there's so many things that can happen. But like you said, the big thing is Mazadol needs to get the win. So I wanted to ask you this.

And I don't know if this question is going to come up. What do you think of the betting lines here? Mazadol is like a plus 360 underdog. I feel like if we're talking value on live underdogs, I don't think there's anybody more valuable than Jorge Mazadol right now at that number. I'm not saying, I'm not on this microphone live right now saying that Jorge Mazadol is unequivocally going to win this fight. But if you're telling me that Gilbert Burns is 80% better than Jorge Mazadol perceived value-wise,

I just don't see it. I just don't see it. What are your thoughts on the line? Yeah. So just for the uninitiated, betting lines are not who is going to win a fight, right? When a bookmaker makes a betting line, they make a betting line to get equal action on both sides so that they can maximize their profits. They want people to bet on Gilbert Burns and they want people to bet on Jorge Mazvedal. And then the lines move as the bets come in to recalibrate that.

So what their goal is is to get the most people betting on the fight. It's not an indicator by them or by anybody else, we think this person is going to win the fight. Okay, just that's number one. Number two, what you spoke about is value, right? You're not saying in a 50-50 fight that Jorge Masvedal is better than Gilbert Burns. What you're saying is the expected value and the perceived odds would indicate that he's a good underdog bet. I'd probably agree with that. I think it's a little inflated for Gilbert Burns.

I do think there's more chances for Jorge Masvado, who's a tremendous defensive fighter, both in his boxing and both in his takedown defense. Gilbert Burns, not exactly a skilled, like, power double wrestler type dude. When he gets people down, it's typically not off-exploitive takedowns like that. So Mazvedal is going to have a lot of opportunity to kind of defend those takedowns in a spot where he's been very good in the past. Now, we've seen him in most recent fights, and I think this is coloring that, against two of the better wrestlers, right?

We've seen him against Colby and Camaro, who are the cream of the crop when it comes to that wrestling. So I think that's what's happening here is a little bit of a forgetting how good defensively Jorge Masvidal is and maybe an overestimating of Gilbert Burns' wrestling, which is packaged more with he is a tremendous ground game, but not necessarily great entries and not necessarily somebody who's going to just steamroll or shoot a power double from across the cage on Jorge Masvidal. So if this plays out on the feet for extended periods of time, Jorge Mazvedal is a better boxer.

Gilbert has some power. Gilbert definitely has some power, and he's definitely a capable fighter. We saw him stand toe to toe with Hamza at Chamaev. And I expect this fight could look a little similar to that, if I'm being completely honest. So yeah, I think Jorge, I agree with you. That's a long-winded way of saying, I think the book is a little bit off here. But again, they're just trying to get the value. and that if I had some money and I had to play one side,

it would be the Mazvedal side. I'd feel more confident that I'd be seeking better profits there long term on Jorge Mazvedal. And there's a lot of dogs on this card, by the way, that I think are live. I completely agree with you. And, yeah, again, I'm not saying Mazdal is going to win. But I do think that I do think most of this fight is going to play out on the feet. And I'm not saying Gilbert Burns can't win a striking battle with Jorge Mazdal.

because his striking has gotten a lot better. He is well-coached. He's got, I mean, he's well-versed in striking. It's much better than it was. I mean, he went hammer and tong with Hamzaa-Chimai-f and lived to tell the tale. And a lot of people still to this day think Gilbert won that fight. He did very well on the feet in that one. Hamzaq can strike.

I know Hamzat's known for other things, but Hamzaa can throw. Yeah. But I just, I think if this is going to play out on the fee for like 10 to 12 minutes, which I think it's going to, I'm not saying it won't hit the mat at all. I mean, how can you not give Mazadol some chance to win this fight, at least a 50-50 chance? Now, according to those betting odds, you're giving, that's an 80% win-prob for Gilbert Burns. I just don't think it's that high. But again, that's just where the lines sit right now.

I love that fight. Love that fight. Mazdaal's going to be jacked up. This is it. I mean, this is not saying there's not other fights for Mazdaal right now. I mean, there's already seeds planted for a potential Kevin Holland fight after what happened yesterday. and in a rando hotel lobby and apparently cameras happen to be there,

but he's already teased like it's do or die in some ways, and we'll see if that's the case. But that fight is very, very compelling right now. Agreed. I love that fight. What else do we got? Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts. So you don't have to.

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Inling, if Adrianianianian Yana's is a good performance against font is the sky the limit for him. Yeah, I have to

confess, I'm in Adrian Yana as Stan. Like, I love that dude. Like, I'm a fan. I don't know if anybody saw the press conference, the media day. Go back and hear what Israel Adasana had to say about Adrian Yonnas. I'm on the same page with Israel. The guy's got some of the crispest boxing in the UFC.

He has a great attitude. He's got a great story. If anybody's, you know, interested to look into his backstory. I think the sky is the limit. And he teased, you know, potentially a Sean O'Malley fight. I don't think there's any chance that happens next just because I think O'Malley is going to be the one that whoever wins the title between Suhudo and Sterling, they're going to be wanting O'Malley and O'Malley. So I don't see any world where they disrupt that line. But down the line, a fight between Adrian Yonnas and Sean O'Malley, fight between Adrian Yonnas and Peter Jan.

Like these are all matchups that I'm salivating over. I think Rob Font is one of the – I talked about a lot of live dogs. I think Rob Fon is one of those live dogs. Adrian Yannes is great defensively. He has some work to do. He gets hit a lot even when he's winning these fights. So I think Rob Fon is somebody who could stick the jab in his face for quite a bit of this fight and just out volume him at times. If he cat, if now on the other hand, if Yannes catches him, it's probably going to go Yonnas his way.

But I think Fon is a live dog. I think he's a really good litmus test for the upper echelon of the division. and if Yannes can clear this bar, the sky is the limit. He's ready for those top tier fights, in my opinion, if he can clear Rob Font. Yeah, Pierre Jan is the one.

I have my eye on if Yonnas wins. I think that's a great matchup. And even if font wins, you can do Font versus Jan. That's a hell of a fight too. Either way, I think font's a plus 155 right now. I think there's value there. That's a 50-50 fight to me 100%.

And I understand that people have concerns about font, getting dropped in his last two fights. But again, and this is why I think this is a 50-50 fight. I'm with you. I think Adrianianianas is great. Great interview, great personalities, he's over. That's why he's getting this opportunity. And if he wins, the UFC is going to strap the rockets to him.

Like, there's no doubt about it. Having said that, the level of competition between these two guys, it's night and day. Rob Fott has fought everybody. He's fought a murderer's row all the way up from John Linnaker, which he was probably way too early for that fight with John, and you can see it if you go back and watch it, all the way up to Ricky Simone and Sergio Pettis and Jose Aldo and Marlon Vera and Cody Garbrand when we still, we weren't questioning Cody as much. Like, he's fought them all. And Yonnas, you know, you fight the dudes who were in front of you. We wanted to see the Randy Costa fight because they were just so damn

friendly to each other. They're just like best buddies getting into it. And then on top of that, the Davy Grand fight was a close-ass fight. Like, it was a really good. step up for him, but it was a very close fight. The level of competition is night and day, but I think it's a 50-50 fight. This could go absolutely either way, but if you're giving me Fon to plus 155, I think that's worth a look for sure.

And a fight's probably going to go to the cards because both these are extremely durable. 100% with you. I'm not concerned about Rob Fon's chin. I'm really not. He's facing guys who can crack in that division. And truth be told, like there's a difference between the dudes who get hit and go out,

and there's a difference between the dudes who stand back up and are already immediately throwing jabs back at you. And Rob Fon's that guy. So yeah, I love this fight. I think this is one of those fights where sometimes we talk about was somebody pushed too soon? This is one of those fights, right? We're either going to find out if Yonis can sink or swim. Was he pushed to the upper echelon a little too soon?

Because I consider Rob the kind of fringe of that upper echelon. Was he pushed too soon? Did he need it a little more seasoning? Or is he ready for great things? And I could see it going either way. I would lean toward Yanez, but betting-wise, I can, I just see a very clear path to victory for Rob Font. It makes a lot of sense if you're getting plus money. So in most ways, I think this is a win-win situation for Yanez.

Because even if he loses a competitive decision, like, his stock does drop that much. If it's a fun fight, they'd be like, damn, there's still a great fight. He lost, but Rob Fonk can beat a lot of guys on any given day. And if he wins, then the risk reward for Yanez is tremendous. Like, this is one of those kinds of fights. Absolutely. Thank you, David. What else do we have? Brandon, is Adasania versus Alex one of the best one-sided rivalries in combat sports?

Yeah, I guess can you even call it a rivalry if it's one-sided, right? It's more of a beatdown at the moment. Let me say this. I know that narrative is kind of out there. I was joking because if you really paid attention, like Israel-A-Sania has won more of these fights. like if you've really if you've really done the legwork and paid attention israel a sanya has been winning these fights uh he's he's typically the one um he's typically the one doing better until he's not and he said it that way right he's winning until he's not um but you can't at the same time that you

say that you cannot discount the fact that Alex Pereira has power that is part of his game plan right it's not as simple as like Israel is winning and got caught no Alex Pereira catches people that's literally what he does. That is his game plan is I can wait and I can get the shot that I need to land. So it is closer, even though it says 3-0, in my opinion, it is more of a rivalry than I think it would say on paper, just if you're looking at the outcomes. Is it the best one side of rivalry? Like, we've had a few that have gone that way. It probably is just because of the level, just because of the level of competition, just because I truly believe that these are the two best, if not like two of the three best at their weight class.

And it's also carried across different combat sports. So I'm probably going to say, yeah, unless you can think of a better one. It's close. Jones, D.C. is, I don't know how. I mean, it's got to take a lot to beat that one. I know one of them is considered a no contest and whatnot, but we watched both those flights play out. And it's like D.C. just got trucked. I mean, even in the second fight, you can argue that before he got knocked out.

D.C. might have been winning that second fight. It was a very close fight the second time around before John Jones's foot hit Daniel Cormier across the face. So yeah, this is up there. It's top three, for sure, in my opinion, with how this is all played out. And the UFC, like I said, like I've said many times before, they had built this up perfectly. As soon as Pereira signed with the company, they set him up to build up to this point, and they did it tremendous. Like if the UFC wants to build something, they are incredible at it. They don't build talent.

I think Belleter probably builds talents better overall. But when the UFC is like, all right, this is what we want to do with this guy or this girl, they do an incredible job and they always seem to get it where it needs to go more often than not. Yeah, and just even like thinking about UFC history, typically, sometimes they've made the trilogies. I don't recall, what's the record in Ortiz and Shamrock? But it typically, and Edgar and Penn, I know was 3-0 for Edgar. typically when they've made these even though it's one-sided like the third is usually not

needed to be made it's kind of like a promotional thing like edgar and bj i think was at feather weight so it was like this new wrinkle to it but we we really didn't need to see fanky edgar versus b j pan again so it's it's usually not this um hotly contested even though it's one-sided it's usually not this feeling of like truly i believe that either one of these guys could win it's usually not that way when you get this deep into a one-sided, you know, trilogy or quadrilogy or tetrology, whatever it's called. So, yeah, this has to be up there. If it's not number one, it's just because I'm forgetting something. So somebody can correct me and bring out something new.

But I truly believe either one of these men can win on Saturday night after having seen three fights previously. Sure. Yeah, nobody wanted to see Tito Shamrock three. Nobody was. Yeah. Some of these, you're just like. And I'm definitely forgetting. My memory isn't what it used to be.

But some of these, like, it seems like typically the end ones you don't need to see. You really didn't need to see. Whereas this one, I'm very interested to see it. I'm very interested to see this fight. As am I. Thank you, Brandon. Everyone complains about the same guys at 155 fighting each other. But now they want Dustin versus Justin 2.

Doesn't make sense. Both guys will be getting a third title shot if they win. Yeah, that fight's awesome. Like, what? I mean, Justin got a fight. He fought Raphael Fiziv. So, like, he did the thing and won. So now he gets to do another thing.

And he's maintained his position, so to speak, by beating Raphael Fiziv. Like, we wanted to see these up-and-coming guys get these opportunities against names like that. And we got one. And Justin won. It just, and Dustin has nothing right now. He literally has nothing right now. What do you, like, Dustin's coming off a win over Michael Chandler, who is about to fight Connor McGregor and get the big bag there.

And Dustin's just kind of hanging out right now, wondering what's going to happen with this Binald-Darious Charles Olivera fight because you can make a very strong argument with the way the UFC conducts business that if Charles Olivera beats Binaldariush, it would not shock me at all if Dustin Porre gets the Islamakache fight in Abu Dhabi in October. It would not surprise me because Porreuxi would, is that over and this is a fresh matchup. Those two guys have not fought each other. We just haven't

seen these 55ers when they get the chance. They just haven't won the fight yet. Like Gamrod lost to Darius, Viziv lost to Gaech. Surukion's about to fight Moikano, which is kind of like, I guess you could call it maybe a step back in some ways in the rankings. But I mean, who would you rather these two guys fight? I guess is my question back. You know what I mean? with how this division stands right now? Who would you rather these two guys fights? And also, like, what's the issue with either of those two guys getting a third title shot? Like, against somebody who they haven't fought?

Like, why should I be that concerned about that? Why should I care how many title shots they get? Like, I'm in for Dustin versus Islam. I'm in for Justin versus Islam. Like, now if it's Charles who's holding the belt, now we have a different story, right? Now I'm like, okay, am I rushing to put them back in there against Charles? but if it's Islam, like, I don't see, I really don't see what the issue is. I don't see why they can't get a third title shot.

I guess the question is about like seeing the same names fighting for the title, but like when those names are actually fighting each other, when you've got Dustin fighting Michael Chandler and Justin fighting Michael Chandler and Justin fighting Fazeve and now they're fighting each other, like these are the top guys in the division. I'm all for that. And don't get me wrong. believe me, I would not feel comfortable with them hopping over B'Neil Daryush if he wins. I think he absolutely at some point just has to get a title shot.

The man has earned it and it's a fresh matchup. There's no reason not to do it. But if Dustin and Justin fight each other and one of them is next, like no problem, no issue at all for my end. Yeah, and if Darius wins, they will make that fight 100%, because it's going to be on the Abu Dhabi card. And typically when they go to Abu Dhabi, they stack the deck with like two or three title fights and just a banger of a main card. So even if that's like not a fight, you're all that thrilled with, the rest of the offering that that card will get will be worth the $80. I think that's a super compelling fight, by the way. Me too.

I'm very interested in that fight. I wanted to see that fight before Makachaf fought Olivera. I wanted to see, but I mean, it worked out the way that it worked out. And here we are talking about this now. But I mean, who doesn't want to see Dustin versus Justin 2? You don't have to do it at 55. Like, I just want to see these two fight. Just make them cut weight.

Just do it at 70 and who gives a shit? Yeah, I don't even care if they get a title shot after or not. Just have them fight. Exactly. That's all I care about. Let them fight. Yeah. I mean, I get, we talk about the 55 all the time.

But now that we have a new champion and there's fresh matchups, that's different. But when all there is just running people and we just kept, it's tough to go back the same names over and over again. But I don't feel like 55 is stagnant, if I'm being honest. Charles versus Darius is a very clear number one contender fight. I'm good. These guys are fighting.

Justin Gachi and Raphael Fiziv just fought. This is moving. 170 is where you really see the stagnation, right? 170 is where it's like, geez, can Balal and Colby fight each other? Can we just like get the division moving? Like 55, I'm good. It doesn't matter if it's the same names

if they're earning opportunities and they're fighting each other. 70 is where I'm like, okay, like, people need to actually, like, fight to make this, to clear this situation up. So no issue. Great fight. I mean, that's the fight I'm looking forward to the most in MMA right now. I love Dustin versus Justin. It's time to run that one back.

Oh, man, the fight rules. It's the best. And look, we don't have a lot of time with these two guys. Like, it's just, it is the way that it is. Do you make anything of Izzy's demeanor during his media day scrum? He seemed more on edge and in denial about Alex's wins over him going into his fourth fight. Did you feel that way going through of that? Did something seemed a little off?

My armchair, like psychologist take on it was he seemed defiant, right? He seemed defiant in the face of people that are expecting him to be like towering or expecting him to be like fearful. and thinking, I've lost three times. It's going to be the fourth time. What am I going to do? Woe is me. And I think he was defiant in the face of that. I think he's probably been hearing that a lot and reading that a lot and seeing that a lot.

So it did feel to me like somebody who was trying to buck that narrative and kind of push it back and be defiant. But I will say, I have a very hard time really, like, gauging Israel to Sanya. He's a lot more open and transparent with a lot of his feelings and things than most people were used to seeing. So the bar seems to be a little bit different for what to think is something and what to think is nothing. Because he's kind of all over the place, sometimes he's been cocky, sometimes he's been humble, sometimes he's been this, sometimes he's been that. He really does have a lot of layers to him and has shown them in a way that I don't think a lot of people have. He's been vulnerable or he's been, like I said, defiant and like rock solid and feeling like nobody can penetrate my defense right now. So because of that, I really don't, I don't have a read on it.

And I tend to like push that to the side when it comes to Israel, to Asana. I tend to go like, I know he's mentally strong. I know he's well prepared because he works under Eugene Barreman and the incredible team at city kickboxing. I'm willing to put the mental part of it in a separate compartment and just look at the fight from an X's and O standpoint and take it from that way. I tend to do that with Israel, Adasanaa, fight specifically.

And so for this one, I'm not reading too much. to it because I don't feel like I can. He's just, he has so many layers to him. He's shown us all these different faces that I never know what to truly make of it. Sometimes, you know, people would be like, oh, he's, you know, he's terrified or he's this and then he'll come out and smoke somebody. It just, I don't feel like it lines up. So I tend to compartmentalize it and separate. True or false. Did he plant the seeds for part of his walkout to be lose yourself by Eminem? Oh, that's funny. I thought you're going to go a different direction there. I think he's such a student of the game.

He probably knows he doesn't want to mess with the M&M curse. So maybe he doesn't. But he definitely planted some lose yourself seeds. I thought you were going to ask because in that same soliloquy, as he's talking about the eight mile moment, he goes, maybe I take him and then he like corrects himself. Like he was about to talk about taking him down.

And I was like, hmm, it seems like he's either planting the seeds for wrestling or like intentionally drop that to want people to think that he's planting the seeds for wrestling. Again, he's a very complicated character, so I don't know which way to take that and where to go with it. I think he'd be more likely to go with the Limp Biscuit track that is on the Stone Cold versus. Yes, that is on the Stone Cold versus Rock promo.

He seems to be an avid with that one. So I think he might go with that one. And yeah, the lyrics are about like my way. So maybe he's saying like, it's going to be my way. So if I'm taking bets, I'll give that one as the favorite in my mind for the moment. Still the greatest promo in the history of professional wrestling. It's a great promo. It's a great promo. Yeah, absolutely. I can't wait to see his entrance now.

Joe D. Who would be your fantasy, Siamese boxing pair? I mean, Rampage and Bob Sapp would probably be on my list, and we saw it, and it was everything we hoped it could be in more. but who would be your fantasy Siamese boxing pencil? I have no idea but I guess on a strategic technical basis you'd probably want somebody who's a Southpaw and somebody

who's conventional, right, so that you can use both hands most effectively on the outside so you're hooking from both directions. I got nothing. Oscar Willis and Casey Leiden. That's my combo. Those two

in the Siamese boxing pants knocking people out. I mean, John Jones, Daniel Cormier. Oh, that'd be fun. That'd be fun. They're in the same shirt and the same little moo-moo? That'd be the best. I didn't even think of the idea of putting two people who didn't like each other.

See, that's why you're the brains of this operation. I didn't even think of the contention between the two. That's a good call. That's a great call. I mean, if they're really burying the hatchet, what better way to prove it than to wear the same shirt and box a promoter and his friend? Or they blow up. and they fight each other.

That'd be amazing. So yeah, I'm into it. I dig it. Incredible. What else we got? I love that question. Why do they have lines in WWE? I guess they,

I guess they're talking betting lines. Yeah, I'm assuming. On the Super Bowl broadcast, they were actually pushing draft kings and betting lines. So I think that's what they're talking about. Wait, Super Bowl or WrestleMania? I don't know why is that Super Bowl.

WrestleMania. Sorry. Why do they have it? Because it generates money. That's literally the only answer. I'm going to pull back the curtain here. I'm going to reveal a secret to you guys. Draft Kings and other betting sites are kept in business by people losing their money by betting money.

I hope that's not a secret that nobody knew. So you want you to bet your money and they want you to lose it, just like any betting site. They also take, by the way, that's not entirely true. They also get money by people placing bets, as we talked about earlier. So they just want action. They want people to, they want people to bet on these things. And if there's two sides of it and people are willing to, then they'll take it. But I think there's obviously, you know, I don't want to speak on behalf of draft kings.

Definitely, you know, no inside knowledge here, but you would have to assume, I'll say that way, you would have to assume that they're careful and strict on how these lines are established. the, I know there's upper limits on how much you can bet on these things. They want to make sure that this is not something where the system is being fixed and people have this information ahead of time. And the same, honestly, the same way this kind of came up when it came around UFC. Like, it seemed like there was an edge and there was a whole scandal with James Krause that resulted from that. And in Canada, UFC and MMA betting lines were taken off the book. So this is a very highly regulated space. I assume that they're doing their

due diligence and they're pretty comfortable with where the lines are at in WWE. I think it's just a fun way for the fans to get involved and additional opportunities for the books to take bets. I definitely don't think it's like, you know, something where there's going to be WW exclusive cappers who are making tons of money just betting WWE. So I think it's a little bit of fun more so than like profit intention. I thought I saw a report that they're trying to like go into different states and like, like legalize it like legit legalize WWE gambling yeah

it's true wow and if you watch the rest of money broadcasts uh on the little draft kings promo kind of hosted by a couple of wrestlers um they were not just the outcome of the match but like that is it no how many tables are going to be broken you know like where the ref take a bump things like that so it's just it's it's it's pretty intense actually so um there is many and they are pushing it heavily.

Yeah. And I think the people's reservations will be around the idea that like they know how many tables are going to go through ahead of it. Right. Like they know that they're going to as opposed to like the flow of sports. But I do believe that there's as long as there is some regulation and as long as they feel comfortable with the idea of those finishes and how many tables and how many titles change hands not being leaked and not nobody getting an inside edge. Then it's just fun. It's just fun for folks out there. But, you know, got to be careful with that.

The regulation is the key. Yeah. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio.

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adjacent documentary. It's a four-part series. Each episode's an hour. It's airing on Showtime. I think this weekend they're going to have all four episodes or something available to stream. It is an incredible story about Lee Murray. I kind of heard the, I think we've all heard the legend of Lee Murray, a little

bit, but this really gets exclusive interviews. They talk to the family of Lee Murray, who've never spoken about it before. And not only subject matter is incredibly interesting, incredibly interesting, but it is a well-crafted documentary, too. So great, great editing, great filmmaking, and great storytelling. Yeah, I was highly impressed of it. So I highly recommend it for all MMA fans. Did you see all four, do they show you all four parts? No, we saw the first episode, and he kind of talked about the other episodes because those weren't officially public yet. But the first episode is basically sets up the world in the history of Lee Murray. And his kind of UFC debut and all that, things like that.

I don't want to give anything away. But there is, if you look up Lee Murray versus Tito Ortiz, street fight and they there's a good chunk of the the documentary that is um talks about talks about that as far as because he has to go but it has to go into the history of lee murray and it is so awesome and he funny and actually uh pat milititch is in it um tony fricklin's in it um Anderson Silva's in it um as far as like talking about the history and um i forgot his name the guy that runs cage rage uh or used to um is in it and um yeah it's it's it's it's it's really well made i hope i hope everyone watches i i actually learned a lot just in that first hour yeah i can't wait

yeah if you're an mma fan i i think you know you're you're gonna be in on that for sure be murray's a legendary figure uh maybe notorious is a better word notorious figure uh oh he's yeah he's truly notorious yeah he's yes all right uh what else we got what's next for burns if he wins this is Now, this is a really interesting question. I feel like it's an easy answer, but maybe I'm wrong. What do you think? If Burns wins this fight. I don't have an easy answer.

You tell me. You fights blow Mohammed next. Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to go that way. I had a feeling you were going to go that way. Is it fair that that's the case? Probably not, but Burns gets a little bit of a rub beating Mazadol, even at this point. And, I mean, what's, it's, if it's a, choice for Bilal between

Shafkat Rock Madoff and Gilbert Burns, I think he's going to take Gilbert Burns. So, I mean, if they can give him that, if that's the alternate prize, I think that's, that'll be okay with Belal. I think you may be right, but I'm also wondering, like, why didn't they just do that fight now?

Why did we have to do Burns versus Mosvedal? Why don't we just do Burns versus Bilal? Like, that fight was there. Like, that fight made more sense all along. So I'm wondering Malal just maybe is holding out for something other than that, right? Like it seems like, hey, that was probably something that they could have been talking about or thinking about initially.

Now it's going to come back around and it's like, I guess maybe you take it as an alternative to Shavkat, but I don't know. I just don't know where Balal's head is at. I don't know who he is willing to and wants to fight. I know he's spoken about Leon Kamaru. You know what? I think Bilal probably wants Kamaru and he said as much, you know, I think you spoke with Damon Martin and he wants Camaro.

So maybe Burns is a little bit out in the cold. Maybe if Balal does get Camaro, you do Camaro Burns and you do Shavkov versus, sorry, do Camaro Bolal and you do Shavkat versus Burns. Whatever it is, any permutation of those, like we need to just, you know, get the Walter weights fighting and get them moving. I don't have an issue with that fight at all. I think Belal versus Burns is a tremendous fight from a style perspective and a matchup on paper. I'm just wondering, like, there's a lot of politics kind of involved in this division at the moment and like what people are angling for.

It seems like, of all of them, Burns is probably the most game, right? Burns is probably the guy who's like, put the name on the paper and I'll fight him. I don't really care. He's giving Colby props for waiting for the title shot. He's saying I'll fight anybody. He's fighting Mosvital. He's fighting back. He seems to be the most game of all of them.

So I would not be surprised, but, yeah, it's too murk. Like, who do these people actually want to fight is the question at the moment? I think Usman, I mean, I like the idea of him fighting Guzman. We just don't know, like, we know what Usman's going to do. We don't know how long he's going to be out for. Like, how long, like, does he even want to fight again this year at this point? And I don't think Ballal is in a position where he can wait. So, again, it burns, goes out there and wins and can turn around relative.

quickly, then there you go. We got something. But that's probably the best case at era for Gilbert Burns because he's not getting, he won't get Leon if he wins. That's just not going to happen. Yeah, I don't think so. Josh, what are some of the storylines and the prelimbs to watch for? I have to admit I can take a peek back.

Let's see. I mean, Jacqueline Amherammeram making her debut is interesting. Joe Pfeiffer fighting Gerald Mearschart. Yeah, I like that. I like that fight a lot. The Mearshaart and Piper Fight is another one of those. We were talking about live dogs. I feel like that's a live dog for sure right there.

I mean, honestly, I'd say the story of this, more than like matchup versus matchup, the story of this prelims and this card for me is underdogs, is live underdogs. I don't know where the line is. It was very close on Curtis and Kelvin Gastilum, but I believe at the time I was thinking about a Curtis was a dog. That one I think is live and interesting.

Waterson less so, but still live, I would say. I'd still say tiny, tiny edge there. But Mearschart, I don't know, man. I think that's going to be a tough fight for Piper. I think that's going to be one where like Mearsart might be the level that we haven't seen them fight yet at a guy who's a really, really good fighter and good submission specialist. So I'm interested in that one. I think Mir Sharts a live dog. Calvio, I think, is a live dog.

As much as I think Loopi's a good fighter, I think Calvio is also a good fighter, and I think she's being underrated here, like a little bit of value underpriced. So, yeah, I mean, I think there's actually a lot of compelling matchups. They look slanted because the odds are more in the favor of the favorites. That's stupid.

Of course they're in the favor of the favorites, but there's high line. There's high lines on a lot of the favorites. I think there's some interesting matchups. I think we're going to see some dogs barking here. So that's kind of my thing. This is a decently, decently interesting prelimbs for me.

I like the play for Mirchard fight. That's one of those fights where, I mean, we talk about Makwan Amir Khani being like the live bet, like machine. Like if Maqwan has a great first round and it gets extended, you just automatically go to the live bet and bet against Machuan. I feel like,

and I'm not comparing Joe Piper to Machuan Amir Kani, but this fight screams to me that if Piper doesn't get Mier Shard out in the first round, that you should probably take a little bite on the Mierchard apple for some live odds. Especially if it's like an, like it's a dominant round for Pfeer. I just feel like Mierchart comes on strong if he gets out of the first round.

Can Piper just bolt Mierchart knock him on two minutes? Sure, it's possible. we've seen Mirshar knocked down the first round before. But when that doesn't happen, that's when Gerald comes on and makes things grimy and gross. And middle-weighty, middle-weights do middle-weighty, middle-weight things. And GM3 is one of the best middle-weighty-middle-weights in the world. So, yeah, it's a good fight.

I like the Wattison fight, too. Yeah, it's a fun card. It's a really fun card. Is this a must-win for Cynthia Cavillo? She will be on it. She is currently on a four-fight losing streak with her last lost, a spit decision loss to Nina Nunes.

Yeah, see, she, I don't think she has the clout that Calvin Gastilom has that we were talking about earlier. Her, I would say, yeah, you need a dub here. You need a W. She needs to make weight and win, for sure.

Yeah, I think that's right. That's the concern I have with Calvio before I can make a read on the fight. Like, she's going back to 115, it's been a minute, she struggled to get there before. Can she get there? in a healthy way. Will she look good on the scale? Will that transfer into the octagon on Saturday?

We're going to get some answers tomorrow when she steps on that scale. So if she makes it and she's good and smiling and happy go lucky, yeah, I think there's a woof-woof underdog. I agree. I think that's a very interesting underdog line right there. Who's Hamzot fighting? Well, I mean, look, he's tweeting up a storm right now. He's tweeting up a storm right now. He's got Alex Pereira in his sights. He's got Costa in his sites. He's got Kobe in his sites.

Basically, he summarizes see you in Abu Dhabi with who I don't care. I came here to kill everybody. So I don't think he cares. Who I'd like to see is probably Costa. I think that one is the one that I want to see the most. I'm not, I don't love the Whittaker one, just from the perspective that I think,

Whitaker is a great next challenger for sure if Alex wins right like if Alex wins Whitaker versus Alex is the fight like that fight just makes all the sense in the world Costa I could see needing one more not not that I'd even have a problem honestly if versus with Costa versus Alex either but I think Whitaker is the one who I'm who I'm pegging for that if Alex can win so I would love to see Costa versus Hamza 1 85 Abu Dhabi makes all the sense in the world fun fight the trash talk the buildup is going to be tremendous. That's the one that I want.

Yeah, that's the answer. That's the answer. I was on the Whitaker train for a while. Now, with this title fight coming up and everything, not really on that train right now. I just, that's a great title fight. Like, if Whitaker beats Pereira and wins the belt and Shemaya fights Koston wins,

that's a tremendous title fight. Very intriguing title fight right there. And I'd be curious to see what that one, is lined at when the betting odds come out for that fight. It seems like Hamzaat's not going to get a title shot right away, because I'd also be interested in that, if I'm being completely honest, if I can be transparent.

I would definitely be interested in Hamzat jumping right into a fight with Alex, but it doesn't seem like it's going to go that way. It seems like there's going to be a fight for him in Abu Dhabi, and Costa makes all the sense in the world. 100%. All right, I'll take a couple more. I think we have time for a couple more.

combat companion what are the stakes if any for the holland pansinibia about could a win place either of these guys on track to be top ten fighters anytime soon what does that say care i don't think much of anything if i'm being honest i've i've said this about kevin holland and there's there's quite a few fighters that this kind of applies to now like he's so game he's so ready to fight he's in fun fights every single time the ufc doesn't really care if he wins or loses right like and and he's willing to take tough fights that are not in his favor, like taking Hamzaa Chamaev on a day's notice, like he doesn't really care about that part of it. He's here to make the most possible money and the UFC is willing to pay him to do that. He's a bit of a cowboy type throwback. So I don't think a lot is on the line at all. Like Kevin Holland could be on a losing streak like he was before and then just jump right back up. He can be on a winning streak and fall right back down once he hits that ceiling that he's going to hit.

So not much, especially from the Holland perspective. If Hunzanibio, it could be good to, you know, kind of get together on a run and crack the upper echelon. But I don't see a ton of stakes here. Like a win over Kevin Holland doesn't really vault you much higher for the same reason. It doesn't drop him much lower. Yeah, Kevin Holland is, I kind of put him in the same boat as like a Derek Lewis. Like there are no stakes for Kevin Allen fights. He doesn't need to fight for belts.

Doesn't need to do any of that. People just love them. They just want to see him on the card. They want to watch him fight whoever they match. him up with and that's I mean this dude fought Hamzaa Chimaev on a day's notice so I mean he's his games they get and he's got a personality to boot he is a nut but again another potential live dog with the value exactly Aga Ponsonadirio plus 205 right now agree I think there's a little value there not saying he'll win but that should be a little closer just I agree I agree 100%

There's a lot of dogs as we've outlined. If you watch back this, we've given sprinkles of like a few, a few dogs that you can play. You can make a case for like almost every underdog on this card. Yeah, there's quite a few. Well, not all of them, but a good joke. Now that I look at the card. All right. And I think this is be our last question.

Who does Belal? I can't wait to talk about this. This is like one of my favorite top is on heck of a morning. but who does Belal need to beat for people to remember his name, New York, Rick? And there's only really one answer to this question, but I'll let you answer this first. Yeah, at the moment, it's probably Shavkat, but the one that I would have said before was Hamzat. I've always said, long said, Balal Mohammed's path to the title should have always been through calling out Hamzat. I'm going to smash the guy that nobody wants to fight.

I'm going to smash the guy that everybody's scared of. and then he would get fans in his corner it's going to take some kind of like performance like that it's not going to just be like I think Sean Brady is elite I think Sean Brady is awesome and that performance by Bala Muhammad impressed the hell out of me that was a

very very like that was one of the best performances I've seen from one of the welterweight contenders but that's not enough like the fans don't get behind the wins over Sean Brady like it's good it vaults you but you need to do something that's a little bit different

when you're stuck in that position, Leon kind of waited it out and finally got that opportunity. For me, it would have been Hamzat. Hamzat doesn't appear to be going back to 170 anytime soon. So I guess I'll shift that to if he can be the one who stops the boogeyman Shavkat, that would probably do it. That would probably be the thing that kind of people go, all right, I can finally, we can stop denying him. But outside of that, like beating another contender, I don't know.

I don't know how much it's really going to do. I like both of those answers. They're both wrong. The correct answer. The correct answer is Balah Mahamah needs to beat Bilal Muhammad. He needs to beat his own brain because the reason he is in this position right now is because he has fumbled the bag over and over again with his callouts. He has fumbled the bag over and over again.

He beats Vicente. He beats was a Wonderboy then, Lucke? Yes, that's right. So he beats Wonderboy, this great win. And he calls out, he calls for the title shot, which no, everybody was like, what the hell are you doing? Like, what a whiff. Hamzat was kind of right there, didn't do that. Then a week, like a week or two, after Hamzat has the war with Gilbert Burns,

Bilal Muhammad beats Vicente Lucke and it back and forth, and the dominant performance. He, dominant performance. I tweeted out the second, like 10 seconds before they read the cards. Ballal, great performance. Go all in on Hamzat Shemayef. Do not call out Kamara or Colby Govington. Don't do it. All on Hamzat.

Hamzat's in the news. Hamzat's all the rage. People are questioning him now. Now's the time. What does he do? Calls out Colby Covington. And here's the thing. Belal realizes he fumbles the bag.

Because when he does the mediatorial, after, then he shifts gears to Hamzot. And at that point, nobody cares because when the moment counted, you didn't make it happen. Al Jermaine Sterling is just as guilty of this. UFC 280. Sean O'Malley just beat Peter Yan. You could have went all in on O'Malley right there. He should be fighting Sean O'Malley, May 6th in his final Bannamway title fight. He should not be fighting Henry Suhudo right now. He should be fighting Al Jamee. He should be fighting Sean O'Malley. He didn't do that. he realized his mistakes, then did the media tour. Yeah, Sean's the bigger fight.

You know, he's the guy, all this stuff. But instead, he called out three guys. And Dana White was like, well, how about Henry Sohudo? Let's do that. And then that got traction. Everybody was talking about it. And now we're in this position. It is Chale Sunnan, how, how you feel about the man?

The man knows prize fighting. And he says it every time. The next fight starts, the second the previous fight ends. You got to have a name, you got to have something to say, and you've got to make it happen. Had Balaamahmahad, after the Luka win, just cut a promo on Hamzaa Tchaimayev, he would have got that fight, and he'd be in a much different position right now. He would have gotten over like we're over. Now, the performance against Sean Brady was great.

That got him over. And then he almost didn't call out Hamzat again. He almost didn't do it. He called an audible, didn't say Shamiyev's name, went with the nickname, didn't have the, the same oomph it could have if he just said, hey, Hamzaa Chamaa, if you're a piece of dog poo, I'm not going to say what he probably should have said, let's go.

And then we have something. I will say this, though, B'allal is in the best spot he has ever been. He's lost, I mean, some of that Colby stuff has lost a little luster. But the Colby thing, obviously the interview I did, when he did the John Anick stuff, and that took off. Belal picked up that ball and ran with it.

He did interviews with everybody, brought that up, said if he sees Colby in Miami, he's going to slap him across the face. For the first time, in a couple of years, through all these callouts, people actually want to see Bilal Mohammed fight, fight, Colby Covington now. That fight actually has something where it makes sense, and people would actually want to watch it.

So I will give Bilal his kudos. He's learning because he took an opportunity to see the bag on the ground, and he picked it up and he ran with it. So let's see what happens here. Let's see what he does with it. And if he does see Colby in Miami, if he can get some action, If you can get up to that man, maybe have a security guard, separate them, it has some things to say.

Let's see what he does with the opportunity. But I think Balaal's learning from his mistakes. But his biggest issue has been him just with the microphone in his hand. When he has the opportunity to make a statement, he misses. But let's see if he can turn that around. So you think the right one is Colby at the moment? I think it could happen. Now, things need to fall into place.

things he needs to do his job Mazadol goes and does his job and Colby and Bilal have a face to face in some way that is caught on some sort of cell phone camera with everything Bilal is done I think there's something to it Mazzao versus Mazvidal versus Edwards

Colby versus Belal yes but the dominoes have to fall into place here for the first time he needs Jorge big time you need Jorge big time you need Jorge big time time and it needs Dana to support Jorge and his mission to fight Leon Edwards.

I don't see any of it happening. I think it's a maybe. It's a maybe. He needs to just bite the bullet on this and be like, look, I get it. Everybody doesn't want to fight Shavkat, just the same way they don't want to fight Hamzat. I'm the guy. I'm the freaking guy. Remember my name.

There's only going to be, here he goes, remember my name. There's only going to be one name. that beat Shavkot and it's going to be mine. Remember my name because it's the only one. And I'm calling out that guy that nobody wants to take and I'm going to beat him up. I'm going to make it look easy. Sean Brady, he was that guy.

Now that guy is Shavkot and I'm going to ruin him. That's the call out for me. And I think people will care about that. I think if he can do that, if he can make good on that, now that's the hard part if he can actually make good on it. But if he can make good on that, I really think he'll have something. I think you'll have something going.

I agree with you fully, though. He missed a boat on the, on the Hamzot thing. He should have been the guy trying to play spoiler on Hamzat. That was it. You get part two. You get part two on Shavkat. I think that's the way. I think that's the way.

I mean, at the end of the day, we threw out all these names. I think he's going to have to fight Shafkar Akmanov. I mean, I said that, I said that immediately. Like, if the best thing that could have happened to Balamah was that Kamara Usman beat Leon Edwards in a not great fight. And then Bilal probably squeezes in there because who else are you going to put in there? Like Hamzad is going up to 185, it appears.

There's nobody else. We've already seen the Colby fight twice. I know Dana said we'd probably do Colby Usman 3. I don't think that's the case, if we're being honest. But who knows? But, yeah, I mean, Bal's in a good spot right now. People care. People care.

People care. I give him credit. He took this whole. situation, he turned the negative into a positive. And people care about Bilal right now. They want to see him do good things. He's videoing the beef between Holland and Mazadal. He's all over the place.

Now he just needs to run into Colby. And I love, I like Bilal Mohammed. I am a big Bilal Mohammed guy. I've been interviewing Bilal since before he got to the UFC. I like the guy. I want to see him fight for the bell. It'd be pretty cool. But it's these little thing.

This is not Bellator. It's the UFC. and it's about putting on the biggest fights, the fights that make the most sense from a business perspective, and you just got to take the right road sometimes. It's not for everybody. Not everybody could do that.

It's not for everyone, but some are very good at it and some aren't. And blah, I think is getting better. He's learning. Al Jermaine Sterling has learned from his mistakes. And, oh, man, if he beats Henry So Hudo, I can't wait to hear what he has to say. If he does not just go out and I'm shot about it.

He will know. Are he? He will not blow that. He will not blow that. He will not blow that. Okay. What, you think, you think Volko? You think Volko?

What is he? Who's he calling out? It's one of those two guys. But don't, I mean, pick one. Just pick one for the love of God. Don't call them both out. You know what? I want Sean Amalley.

But if maybe I want to go to 1.45 and fight this guy. Or maybe I'll go to 155 and fight this guy. No, no, no, no. Pick the lane and go. I think both Henry, Suhudo and Al Jemaine Sterling know exactly what they want to do next. And it's a big target on Sean O'Malley's head. And Sean O'Malley wants it to, and the UFC probably wants it too.

So I think this one's like unfumbulable. This one, we've got who's like the person who's fumbled. I thought the last one was unfumbulable. You got Curtis Martin in his prime just with two hands around that football and he ain't dropping it. There's no way. There's no way. It's going to be Sean O'Malley. It's got to be.

Yes. be more Curtis Martin, be less Mark Sanchez. Good things can happen. Without being said, I think we're done. I think we have answered a lot of questions here. We have made the appetite for UFC 287 a little bit bigger. I think we're excited. We have the watch party going down on Saturday, which I'm very excited about.

I will tease it again. The cold open for the UFC 287 watch party might be the greatest thing we have ever produced at M.AFighting.com. So stay tuned for that. all I did was voice it, but Connor is, Connor Burke's like lives in here. He knows what I'm thinking. And I picked the music. He was like,

this is perfect for what I was thinking. And then he showed me the video with the music behind it. And I'm like, oh my God, this is exactly what I wanted. And then I just voiced it. It's pure magic. He sent it to me yesterday.

I'm stoked to see it. Incredible. And New York will be joining us once again for the, maybe the final meeting between Alex Pereer and in Israel, out of Sonia. So very much looking forward to that. Tomorrow we'll have the way-ins. We'll have preview show.

And then we're just going to have all sorts of fun. So Casey, you can go ahead and hit that music. And let's take one step closer to UFC 287. So New York, Rick, thank you for joining us. Any final thoughts for the peeps. What a pleasure it's been. Anytime you mean me and me, I'm always here to spend this time with you, to spend this time with the fans, with Casey, with everybody around the world.

as our living. It's so cool. And I'm very thankful and blessed. As a mind. Thank you, New York, Rick. Thank you, Casey on the ones and twos. Back next week on Between the Links. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Lanes. An MMF fighting production on the Vox Media Network.