MMA Fighting - BTL | PFL vs. Bellator Grade, Ferreira vs. Ngannou, Royval & Ortega Shine At UFC Mexico City

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

The PFL vs. Bellator event is in the books, and it delivered a fun card of fights, capped off by Renan Ferreira's quick destruction of Ryan Bader. While the pay-per-view price tag was obviously too high, did the event deliver what it promised to the MMA fanbase? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew give their grades for Saturday's event in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, they'll take viewer questions throughout the show, including the fallout of UFC Mexico City, if Brandon Royval and Brian Ortega earned second cracks at UFC gold with their wins in the main and co-main, if Ferreira will end up fighting Francis Ngannou in his next fight, Johnny Eblen's close call, a busy weekend ahead with UFC Vegas 87, Gamebred Bareknuckle, and Jake Paul's next fight, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cadulian 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. From M.M.A. Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my...

The iconic voice. Sylvester Lynn, welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. And yes, I know you're looking at your cell phones, the calendar, what have you? And you're like, it's Tuesday. What the hell are you doing here? Well, can't do a show Thursday. We didn't want to leave you hanging. So we're here for a special Tuesday edition of BTL. And because we're doing this, we're going to turn the programming over to you guys and gals who are watching the program. And we'll get to your questions in a moment. But first, let me introduce the co-host here, the man who will be helping me answer your your questions. Mr. No Gray area, the hot take kid, the cannonball kid, the gambling

enthusiasts here at M.AFighting.com, and just a hell of a videographer. Jed Bishu, joining us back in the ATL. How are we doing, my man? Hey, guys. I'm doing great back in the ATL. I'm excited to see how the video comes out, Mike. We're talking about it all fair. I hope I didn't butcher it, and it should be fun, even if it did. So that'll be fun. When's that coming out next week? we're putting it all together. The pieces are coming together nicely. I think you guys will enjoy it.

It's going to be a lot of fun. Mike Perry is what you would expect him to be on the golf course, maybe even more. And that's what this thing is all about. But right now, we're here to talk about MMA. We're here to talk about the big news and notes going on. So let me just start here, Jed, before we go to the peeps. And you guys can ask your questions. I'm sure there's going to be a bunch of them.

If you want to jump the line, you want to remove the red velvet rope. Super chat option is available. You get to cut right through everybody. Even if the line is a mile long and around multiple corners, your super chat will get you right through the door. But Jed, we had UFC Mexico City. I was not on the post-fight show, which apparently was the longest post-fight show

in the history of MMA fighting. We also had PFL versus Bellator. So there's a lot to talk about. So let me ask you this. If you could go back and re-watch one of these events a month from now, but you can only watch one. are you rewatching pfl versus bellator or are you rewatching ufc mexico city so i'm i'm actually rewatching ksw epic if i'm picking one of them um because that was the most fun of it of the

weekend i mean we had we had m m m and a gie we had soccer kicks and stomps we had a bunch of sick knockouts uh we had a odd grappling match with josh barnett and filled the freeze there was weird boxing in the main event that ended kind of lamely, but the rest of the event was the most fun. So if I'm re-watching it, KSW Epic is the choice. If you're restricting me strictly to PFL versus Belator or the UFC, which shout-outs Kalam McClare. And obviously, that's ridiculous because Kambate was clearly the biggest event that happened

this past weekend. We're just not, we're not stepping up appropriately. My bad on that one. I would still go PFL versus Belator. And I think I'm not alone. than that. UFC Mexico City was a much better vibe. I mean,

obviously the Mexico City crowd was astonishing. Like, they're always super alive. And the fights themselves were fine and good and interesting. But there was just a lot of stuff there that didn't totally hit for me. Whereas the PFL card, maybe I'm grading on a curve here, Mike.

That card ripped through. You and I were working it. It flew by. They just got them in, got them moving. There were some things that were interesting. I got to see my Nirvana fight of, Romero versus Tiago Santos.

It was literally everything we said it would be. It was exactly what we said it would be. It was delightful. The co-main event was fun. And the main event was over in 23 seconds or whatever. So I would go that. And I think I think I'm not alone because when you said we had the longest post show, there were two big factors that.

The first is, well, I guess three. Because we were covering both the BFL Bellator and the UFC Mexico City. I was in charge of it. And, you know, if I'm in charge of something, I'm just going to run wild with it. I don't care about time. It's never been a priority of mine. And the number three thing is people kept wanting to talk.

People kept super chatting in to discuss not Mexico City. All the questions coming in were about PFL versus Bellator. In the post stuff, I put a call out for the mailbag. And almost all the questions were really just about like, okay, PFL Bellator, like, was this a success? This was obviously a failure. Where do they go from here? It drove traffic on our website in ways that no one was anticipated. I'm not here to say that PFL is the co-leader.

I mean, they are, but this was a win for them in a lot of ways. And I think still kind of came out better than it, better than I thought it would have, certainly. And pretty good overall. Yeah, it was not a bad card. I graded it a B minus. I think just the pacing. And I know you love you some smart cage, but the smart cage is fine. Just keep the stats to yourself.

That was the one bad. It's like another option. Oh, you like the stats. They're moving away from their base, Mike. The fans who brought, they are forgetting who brought them here by getting away from the smart cage stats, but giving us the full commentary. I mean, they just brought all of the Bellator plus the PFL commentary teams together. And if I had one, one major critique of the entire event, everybody who gets in front of a camera should be replaced. everybody i'm okay with actually they they shifted big john to like the uh that who's the NFL guy

like the NFL rough dude that they do for games when they go in for calls they shifted big john to like a remote doing that and i thought that that played really well but i don't need to see any of the rest of them commentate mixed martial arts for any reason it that was easily the toughest part of the show that's fair i thought dan hardy did a nice job Chale wasn't for everybody in that role, but I'm glad he's still part of it, even if he just shifts to an analyst role. I think that's probably where he's best suited, like him, Amanda. I think Chale got a bad rap. So you like Chale?

No, Chale is still too much and should be more of an analyst role. But Chale was getting dunked on for just saying stuff, which is fair. Like, he was absolutely doing it. He was partly doing it because I assume that Sean O'Connell is supposed to be the play-by-play guy. and he just wouldn't talk for like large stretches of fights. He would just be like allowing empty air. And I'm not saying you need to smother the call, but he was never doing play by play.

He was just like waiting for an ad read or waiting for a spot to be like, and check out and make sure you buy the pay-per-view. He wasn't like doing the play-by-play stuff. And so then Chale inserted himself in with some nonsense. So it was just a real tough dynamic all around. I like Dan Hardy overall. I thought he kind of got drowned out from that that booth. And there's no shortage of people good and talented.

Give some other dudes some shots. We don't need to keep running out Randy Couture. We're past that. He was just in the prelims, though, right? He wasn't on the main car. I think that that's correct. Okay. That sounds like that might be right.

Yeah. All in all, this was a fine event. If you spent the $50 on it, I'm sure you're like, okay, this is pretty good. I just don't think a lot of people spent $50 on it, which probably led to the traffic numbers on the website being as high as they were, just so people could actually see what was happening and just without having to pay $50. But we'll see how this plays out. Good start. Good start to the year. I mean, this was easily the most digestible PFL event of all time, and it's not even close. This was quick. This was half the time of the November pay-per-view main card.

I think our man GC put it out there was like two hours and 37 minutes for the whole main card and the November one was over four hours just for the main card, not to mention the multiple title fight preliminary bouts that went five rounds. So it was a tough one. This was way more digestible and enjoyable.

So good start to be. Three round fights was way better choice. Way better choice to three rounds. Five rounds. Not that it actually ended up, they didn't really need it. I mean, only the co-main went to the card. So that would have been the only one that that would have required it.

And coincidentally, that's probably the one that was the most, like would have been the most interesting to go longer. But three rounds is fine. That's a good point. Yeah, because if the main event goes another way and we got to watch Ryan Bader lay on top of Henanfahe for 25 minutes, everyone's going to hate themselves and that card. Yeah. But Penn and Ferre is a giant man. so I don't even know if Bader could possibly be done. He's gigantic.

All right, well, let's go to the peeps. Let's go to the peeps. I'm sure there's PFL questions. I'm sure there's UFC Mexico City questions. I'm sure there's questions about lots of them. UCVegas 87, baby. Come on. Yes, yes.

UFC Vegas 87, of course. Again, Super Chat feature. You get to jump the line. Joseph Beaux. We never hear from him on any of these shows ever. Do they think Ortega messed up play? for the UFC this week. Felt like if Yair won,

he would have been named the number one contender, even though to me, if Loya has done enough to get a shot, Yair is a name. So the question is, did Brian Ortega screw the pooch? Your response, I have a thought on this, and it's kind of a similar thought to 298,

but would say you, did Ortega screw up the plans here? No, I still maintain that the plan is going to be Volkinovsky- gets a rematch with Ilya but he ruined the contingency plan because I do think the contingency plan was if Volt can't go for some reason we do Yeir because there's a lot of heat there he's a name it'll be a really fun fight and so I think he screwed up the contingency plan I also just this again I don't think the UFC cares that their contingency plan got blown because now they have another

fine one I think that ultimately it's going to happen here is Volk's still going to get his title shot whether you like that or not like that's just the world we live in and what will happen 80% I would say the likelihood there and Ortega gets to fight Evluv for a title shot

and so the UFC's okay with that the UFC likes Brian Ortega I don't think he's as popular as Jerry Rodriguez is but you know still a popular dude you know he was in the Modelo commercial and stuff

and that gets a big win he goes out there and beats Evluv then that's a that's a fight that you can sell I mean, you can sell it right now to do the Iliate Tepore if I truly hope that does not happen, but they could do that if they have to. And so I think that, you know, this is one of those situations where maybe they didn't win as much as they would have wanted to, but they did not lose.

Nothing got bungled here. It was just the lesser of two good outcomes. Yeah. And that's what I was going to say. This was not a, I mean, it's not a win-win, but it's nobody loses here. Yeahir wins. I mean, that's just a big one. Spain versus Mexico, there's heat there.

You could sell that thing. Yeah, year probably jumps the line if he could turn around and fight whenever that Spain card happens. But the fallback plan is Volcanovsky gets his immediate rematch and you knew he was going to push for it anyways. And if they offer him that fight for any time, he's going to say yes. Even though, even if everybody's like, oh, we need him to take six months to a year off. He ain't going to do it. He's going to take the fight. I think Yaya would have got it had he won and done so in spectacular fashion,

but Volk's the backup plan. And there you go. Vloyev probably ends up being the backup fighter for that fight. And there you go. Just throw him in there with Brian Ortega next. Clearcut number one contender. I think we're fine. So I don't think the UFC lost.

I don't think Ortega screwed any plans up at all. Especially because since there is not an immediate challenger as well, Like, if Roger Gives goes out there and gets, like he fights on it Allen, which I think is probably the most likely beats Arnold Allen, then the UFC has given people title shots for less. Like he can just get right back to a fight with Duporia with one big win here. So, no, I think he's fine. Yeah, he's a win at worst.

He's two wins away and he's still in the mix. Two wins away, almost certainly puts him back there. Yeah, as long as Deporia has the belt, he has a faster track than if anybody else has the belt. Yep. All right. What else we got? All right. Oh, hey.

Let me jump in in real quick. Hi, Casey. Hey, Casey. Hey. Ladies' bet, should Mexico City simply be removed from the list of UFC destinations? So, they're viable cities of Mexico at lower altitudes. Why hamper the product for no logical reason? What are your thoughts on this, Jed?

Should they just leave Mexico City? Seems like the crowd's pretty electric and they get in better fights than anybody else does. This is on the right track. but it doesn't quite get over the line. It's not a bad take. Doing fights at altitude sucks. It was fun this weekend in general that they at least have learned

we should not bring heavy weights to altitude. So that's smart. But it still does like largely just kind of affect the tenor of these fights in context to the rest of things going on. Like Yehya Rodriguez, who, you know, he gassed out. Like he just straight up, totally gassed out

and Brian Radega beat him. And maybe that doesn't have. happen at sea level. Maybe it does. I don't know. But it is, it adds an extra layer to something that is not anywhere else. And while other sports have this and venues change how things work, it would just be cool if we didn't go there often. I think that going there, you know, once every couple of years is a special treat. Totally fine. You just got to be very particular about it. But Casey, I think we've talked about this, maybe on air or off. I would be a lot more okay with it if the UFC paid fighters. But because they don't, all of the prelim fighters are not

spending a month at altitude in prep for this. They're flying out there a week and a half before acclimating and then just going with whatever they can. Like being a main quarter in A-list or the headliner gives you advantages to these altitude things, but I, that's just trash. If the UFC paid all their fighters an appropriate amount of money and everybody could take the necessary steps to do this, I'd be okay with it. But I do think it's something that they should do very, very sparingly because there are other places in Mexico to go. You don't just Mexico City is not the only city in the country of Mexico. Yeah.

I mean, you just got to go back to what the first one, Kane versus Verdume. Kane famously kind of after the fight or weeks after the fight kind of said, you know what? I messed up. It was just impossible to bring all my coaches out to Mexico City that many weeks ahead of the fight. I think I think Verdum went out there like a month and a half ahead. It was like two months or something. And he brought his coaches. He lived out in the same elevation because of the AKA situation.

You know, Hav and the team still had to be in San Jose. So it was just impossible for him to bring his coaches out there. And he paid for that. Or I mean, he didn't go out like the month ahead like Verdum did. And even someone like Angela Hill, someone who's got great cardio, talked about how, you know, they couldn't afford to go out of Mexico. City for that long before the fight. And she fought part of one of her worst fights of her career against Tisha Torres and

just got, she basically gassed out. And like both of them gassed out like in and around. So, uh, yeah. And I know a lot of like musical artists just don't go to Mexico City because they can't sing there. They'll just, they'll lose all their cardio, whatever, singing cardio like a third of the way through the concert. So, uh, it's tough.

It's a tough one. Yeah. And it's a money. It just comes down the money. Pay them right. They'll, they can come out earlier. But yep. And for the record, I'm not like a huge fan of going to Utah a bunch, but that's just Utah pays for that.

Yeah, I think it's only half, half the elevation too. It's half the elevation, yeah, but it's there. Also, shouts to Dominic Cruz and his, as a man who struggles with geography, him real time working out the math of elevations between Denver to Mexico City, A plus stuff. Huge fan of that. Okay. Okay. Oh, we have another one from, we have another one from Joseph Boza. It was just two people leaving questions. That's it? With Rodagh beating Moreno is Mohamed McKeyev, who's 5 in the UFC in the catbird seat to get the next shot of pants if he beats Alex Perez this week.

I think this is a clear yes if McIyev runs over Perez. Yeah, easily. I said this on onto the next one where I filled in for you this week, Mike. I said this on the post show. I somehow improbably, it's probably a fight too early for him, honestly, but with where just sort of the lay of the land of flyweight. Because Minal Cap can't make weight because Mielabazi got hurt. Moham Mekaiev goes out here and he gets another finish over Alex Perez. And they're just going to give him the shot.

As long as he's willing to go to Rio and fight, you know, is that in April or is that May? It's got to be May, right? they're going to have at least a couple of weeks after 300. So if he's ready to turn around fighting May in Rio, if he gets to win this weekend, I think for sure he's getting his title shot, which sucks because I didn't pick him to be the flyway champion at the end of this year, despite the fact that we've been very high on this man's prospects. Yeah, but I mean, would you pick him to beat pants right now?

in Rio probably not but baby yeah it could happen I mean Pants is like a better matchup form than a lot of the other ones just because Pants wants to be engaging in the grappling and that's like obviously where my high of strengths are so it'd be a fun fight there would be a lot of scrambling I don't know we'll see in Rio probably not

yeah I don't think is that but that's not the important part the important part you think Mackayev would have earned it with a victory? Not that he would necessarily be fine. It's fine that he earns the title. Like, I don't think it's ridiculous. I do think that this is,

this should be the setup fight for a title eliminator and like normal flow of things. Like, out of president of the UFC, I think. Um, you get this win and now you get a title eliminator against a Brandon Roy vall, something like that. But because how it's all shaking out,

plug and play and it's okay. Yep. I know we're going to talk a lot about in the preview show, but like how insane is the card lineup on this, this apex card, the fact that we're talking about a title contender fight and it's not even close. It's like the third fight from the top, right? It's not even the co-main event. Correct. There's also another, there are two fights with ranked fighters on this fight between two ranked fighters on this card and both of both of the four top. 10 fighters, I think, I think Steve Versaig's top 10 of the UFC are fighting and they're just scattered around the main card.

It's impressive. It's actually not a bad game card. It's honestly a totally fine fight card. It's just a garbage main event, which brings it down. But UFC wonders why the flyweight division can't gain traction because they refuse to put flyweight in prominent positions. I think we've discussed a discussion before, but like when was the last. time a non-title fight flyway last night oh yeah well in general though like this but like but like in jit six four days ago in general in general like it's like of all the weight classes sorry of all the

weight classes it's like by far the least weight class they will ever put as a main event like and this is like in last week it was weird too because it shouldn't have been the main event ortega yeah years should have been the main event to be honest that had more more significant should have been it was So it was just... Well, yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean, no, pretty clearly Perez-Mahev should be the main event this weekend. There's no reasonable excuse for it,

other than they are small, and the UFC discriminates against small people. They do. Or they just think Shemiel Gadsyev is just going to run over Rosenstrike. I don't know why they would think that surely they've watched him fight before. Gadsieff is a finishing machine though So I mean that's what he does He is a

A fighter He is a dude who's around I honestly If I saw him at the fighter hotel I'd be like I think that guy looks familiar I mean he's only had one you have some fight You would be like that dude definitely probably fights people

Because he just has the look of a guy who fights human beings But yeah it's It's very odd All right. He's undefeated at heavyweight and 34, I guess, is prospect age in this weight class, so sure. Yeah. He's only gone to one decision in his entire career. All right.

Question for pro fights and bow. Is that a heavyweight over for you, Jed, by the way? I have not, or a recording thing and like not that long after this and I have got to do my research. Let me see what the overunder said at for. for that particular ball game. I mean, it's probably a heavyweight. Oh, it's over one and a half?

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Let's do it heavyweight over there. In honor of one half of the main event, A, what continent is Suriname located? B, what is the official language of Suriname? C, how many people in Suriname? D, what percentage of Suriname is covered by rainforest?

I'm sorry. Well, Suriname's in South America. I have no idea what the official languages. I mean, if it's in South America, so I would just guess Spanish, but that's probably not right, right? You guys have any thoughts on this particular one? And then obviously I have absolutely no clue

how many people in the percentage that's covered by rainforest. I would guess a lot because it's like up there by the Amazon. So, okay, official language. I would guess in a lot of this. Think colonizers. Think colonizers. Well, there are three colonizers in South America. It's, it's Portuguese, it's Spanish, it's Dutch.

If it's not Portuguese, which I think is just Brazil, it's Spanish or Dutch. And since you guys didn't say I was right with Spanish, it must be Dutch. It is Dutch, yes. Okay. And the population, just shy of 630. 13,000 as of 2021. That means a lot of it is covered by rainforest, then. Probably.

I live in a city with like four times as many people as that. There are more people, yeah, more people in my neighborhood, I think. That's, I know. I went to high school with like a significantly statistically large percentage of that country. It's like, ah, high school had 3,000 people. That's like a, that's a voting block in search. for sure so no so if um if rosenberg does good there's no no ufc syrinom coming up i don't think so all right i'm just stadium show becomes the heavyweight champion of the world

yeah if he wins the belt maybe they'll ponder it but they ain't going any time before that i'll say the question i don't think they're pondering it if he wins the belt so dana are there any stadiums in use in serenorm that we could go to wow Surinam is often referred to as the greenest country in the world with 93% forest cover. 93%. I mean, I would have been close. I would have at best been like 50. 93%.

What is that? What's the other 7%? Just like a couple of roads. The coast? It's the coast. The coast. It's just the coastal cities and then. And parking.

We're basically parking lots Yeah That's what I'm like All right Dude that's This is like one of the best questions I've learned so much This has been terrific

I've learned so much I want to go to Suriname now See what's up All right Maybe a fight circus can go there I mean now you're talking See You get me all sweaty

All right All right Question for them Boarding for flight 246 To Toronto is delayed 50 minutes Oh what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. The fours Daniels. Which undefeated fighter loses on Saturday at the world's most famous apex? There's three undefeated guys on the card. So Gadsieff is one. Mahev and Petrino.

Maheuf and Vito Petrino. Oh, also Umar's on here. So it's actually four. And Javid Basharat is on. undefeated that's the undefeated Basharat

not the other one is the other undefeated to you Javid's under I think so yeah Javid's undefeated there's one two three

four five there's five undefeated fighters in the card oh I actually knew this because A.K.

was like are we doing an undefeated parlay this week and I was like I don't know how I feel about Gazziev

being in a parley but uh yeah my guess is If one of them loses, Gazziaf seems like the most likely to me. I don't know. Like, I think Mikhail is going to be Perez. Um, Um, Omar's going to win because he's Umar.

Um, though Beck, Bxit's like, ex, it's good. He's a good fighter. It's a, it's the worst possible fight where it's hard and no one knows him. No one serves. It's just like, just the worst of all worlds. Um, Amon's a hobby isn't very good. Sir Javid, beat him.

I mean, I guess Tyson Pedro could beat Vita Petrino. Like, I don't know. One of those two, the heavyweight or the light heavyweight are the most likely to me. Yeah, I think all the undefeated fighters are going to win. I'll say Petrino would be like the one I would have the most pause about because Pedro, you know, Pedro's fun and dude hits really, really hard. And all it takes is one big shot from him to land. So I guess I'll go there.

But I could see all these undefeated fighters. remaining undefeated at the end of it. I mean, yeah, pretty much in agreement with that. Yeah. All right. Thank you much, Forst. Also, Tao Ine, I've never had Surinameese food, but I'm going to, let me see if there's some in Atlanta.

Maybe that's what we'll do in, like, the same way Connor does, you know, fight feasts or whatever, I'll just hit up a Surinamee spot if there's one in the general area of me. All right. Rain Entertainment. Thoughts on a potential Sehudo versus Moreno fight. Do you think Moreno can be in the title picture at 135 pounds if he moved up? So I'll answer this first.

I love the idea of this fight, but not for the second part of the question. I like this fight because it doesn't tie up either division. Like if Brandon Moreno meets Henry Sehuto, 135, no one's going to be like, oh, let's get Brandon Moreno a Bannamway title shot. He'll be so far behind because Bannamweight is just loaded and there's just a bunch of people ready to go.

While if Sohudo beats Moreno at 135, it's like, okay, he beat a flyweight. Like, that's how people will perceive it. So I like the matchup because it's just a good rivalry fight. Neither are in the title discussion at all right now in either of their divisions, nor maybe not Moreno at Flyway, because Moreno's always a win away, it seems, to getting back in there. But at least if they book this fight,

they won't be talking about Moreno fighting for the Flyway. We can give some other people a chance. And I think if you lose two straight and go one and three in four fights, depending on, it doesn't even matter what the quality of opponent is, you should not be in the title conversation for a little while. So I like this fight. That is what I think they should do. And I kind of feel like that's what they're going to do here.

Maybe they do it at the sphere in September. Good little rivalry fight for that card. I think it makes a ton of sense. I like it. What do you think, Jed? Yeah, this was, we got there on, on to the next one, because I didn't even think of this fight for whatever reason. So I was like, I originally started at, hey, I would like Moreno to have to defend his position

because he's now lost two in a row. And there are up-and-coming fly weights. And I think we should let them get a shot at some of the dudes. And Moreno is now firmly in the, you got to hold one down. And then we talked up and was like, oh, actually, this fight can happen. And yep, we should just do this one. not to build to anything, not to mean anything, not to get either man a title shot.

Just they got beef, let's settle it. Sometimes fights can just be fun, make a lot of sense, not hold up by the division. Go for that. Yep. Also, I'm now desperate to find a Surinamee's place because looking at their cuisine, it appears awesome,

as it's just like a combination of all food functionally. Like, Western Africa, Creole, Indonesian, Dutch, French. Like, it's just a lot of food that looks good. And I can't find a Cernemese restaurant in Atlanta. What else we got? Okay. I find Caribbean food, but that's not the same. Josephosa.

We lost Raul Roosters versus Ricky Tertios this week. Sounds like it could be it, 238. But interviews, Ricky has been pissed and upset because Raul withdrew this week thought. So unless I will tell you this, just. based on what I know, because I received a text message last night, I would be stunned if this fight happens on Saturday, like legitimately shocked. So take that information, however you would like, but if you're expecting this fight to happen on Saturday, it's probably not happening on Saturday. It seemed earlier yesterday that it was going to happen Saturday because Ricky Tersios did come out

on Sunday. It was like, nah, dude, I ain't fighting this guy. But it seemed. like cooler heads prevailed. It seemed like they were going to do it. It wasn't going to be at catch weight. It was going to be at 1.45. They were going to do it there. It seemed like we're on the path to it happening. And then a few hours later, it turns out that it's probably not happening at all on Saturday. So will they rebook this fight down the line? Perhaps. But if you're expecting it to happen on this card on Saturday, unless, honestly, unless, I'm not going to say a miracle happens, but unless something freaking crazy happens, this fight, will not happen and neither of these fighters will be competing on Saturday from what I understand

as of right the second. So there you go. What was the reason for Rosa's withdrawing? But it's kind of sick. Like, I'm not that nothing specific. I assume that I think it was sick. And I my reading of it was that he was trying to gut it out and compete anyway. And they pulled the plug. We're like, yeah, you just can't do this. Yeah. Who do you think the UFC is mad at if this fight doesn't happen? I mean, probably Ricky Terseus. That sucks.

He would be the one. But it shouldn't be. It's not, trust me. He was ready to go. Yeah. He was ready to get to. No, no. I kind of figured you would say terseus, but I was, I was, you know, yeah.

They shouldn't. They shouldn't be upset with him. He was going to go. He was going to do it. But I don't know what happened between like noon Eastern yesterday to like 8 o'clock last night. Because it looked like the fight was a go. I know Tersios was in. And then all of a sudden it's not happening anymore.

So don't know why. Weird. Yeah. Yep. Weird weird. And people have to realize there's lots of moving parts in the sense of these fighters' lives to like coaches and just whatever like day jobs they had when they go back, you know, when they were expected to go back, you know, to wherever they live. So, yeah, there's lots of reasons why Ricky could not do this.

I mean, look, they get two apex. They get $2.99 next week. Trust me what I tell you. They don't need Rale Roses Jr. Ricky Tersios on 299. You're at the apex on the 16th for the Tuavasa Tibera card. You're at the apex on the 23rd for Hevis, Namaunas. You got a spot for it.

No, I've got it. I've got it. Here's what happened. Here's why the fight fell apart because the UFC doesn't want it to happen. Because the UFC is now looking at this and they're saying, we got to have one more for 300. We want 19-year-old Raul Roses Jr. on 300. Raoul Roses Jr. will fight at UFC 300.

That's what we're going to go to now. Oh, yeah, maybe. Maybe. Danny keeps saying there needs to be one more. There doesn't, but he keeps saying they've got one more to offer. 19-year-old Rawell Roses Jr., there you go. Didn't they have stage on 200? Yep.

They won. Yeah. This is, it's honestly, I can't believe I haven't thought of this before. It's weird that he wasn't already booked for it. Just in general, yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you much.

Do, do, do. Now, the next question is from Brandon. Should the PFL get rid of the season format? Add 135, 185, 1.85, 2 of their biggest talents don't have a division again. Should they get rid of the season format? No. No. I don't think so.

I think the season format is absolutely critical to them existing and functioning as a company. Because without the season format, you know what they are? Bad UFC. And how did bad UFC work as a brand for Bellator? Not great, Bob. Like, you have to be playing, you're playing in the same sandbox, but you've got to dig out your own corner than the UFC. Or your entire identity.

will be worse product than the UFC. And that's okay if you're going to be a feeder league. If you are a regional promotion trying to feed and develop, if you are the USFL trying to just, yeah, we're not the NFL, we're not competing with them. Our best players will go there. But this is the same thing elsewise is not their stated intent. It's not how they have a business.

I largely think that what they are doing is correct. They have, you should have a season format. I think that they need to iterate on it. I think two fights for a season is the dumbest shit I've ever heard in the whole life. But you take a season, you get winners out of these seasons. And when you win seasons, you get to elevate into their Super League functionally. And that's how you can build some level of stardom. That's how you can have a product on offer that is separate than what the UFC is doing.

And getting rid of that would just be to me awful. I don't think you should let the season stand in the way of good matches. Like, if you have them, make them. But no, I think they're doing fine. Obviously, I had 135. It's among the best weight classes in the sport. And 185, yeah. I mean, you got Johnny Eblen.

You got to add a middleweight division. As far as weight divisions, you have to have those divisions. I don't like, it's just, you have to have middleweight. I think you'd be fine. Oh, I think you absolutely have to have it. You are a co-leader. I know you're not the co-leader, co-leader, but. If you want to be any sort of MMA presence, you need to have the freaking weight classes.

That just seems basic. You don't have to have every maybe you don't have to have like women's straw weight or maybe women's atom weight or UFC doesn't have women's atom weight. But for those, those are just I think women's Adam weight would actually be a good addition. Completely agree. You can separate yourself from the UFC if you have Adam weight. For PFL, yes, yes. Absolutely.

I agree. I think it would be okay to leave. middleweighted out from a season format. Oh, season format. I think they should have it in general. Like that that would just be better. But I think it would be defensive. We're just going to have Johnny Eblen fight at light heavyweight and, you know,

one-off middleweight fights against guys that we can do and not just do. I don't think you have to do 10 seasons every year. That's a lot. You know? I would honestly, maybe in an ideal world as I'm thinking through this, I would rotate seasons every other year. And so then it would allow fighters to have some break off from the six fights a year grind or whatever. And then on their off years, they can still have, you know, feature fights and one-off bouts, etc.

But we do, all right, so 2024, we are doing bannam weight, bannum weight, welterweight, light, light, women's featherweight. And then 2025 we are doing featherweight. however the alternate stack would be there. And so that could make sense to me as well, honestly. Yeah. I'm still not into the seasons, mostly because it's a two-game season.

Two-game is dumb. I love the season concept. They are just executing it poorly. I think the season concept is totally fine. It is a very different way to approach it. I think you need to, and you need to have fighters who are down for it, which is the other thing,

like, hey, the way this is going to work, don't train. The goal is for you to not train, like, hard in training. It's just show up and fight because you're going to be fighting every four weeks. Like, you're going to fight four times in a very short amount of space. Just do road work and come in with whatever skills you got, you know? Like, that's to me how this should and would work well. Yeah, pretty much.

So would you just forego the playoffs? No, I think doing a playoffs is fine. But I think you need at least three, three games in the season for it to be like a credible season. Like in my head, you would just do two groups of four. They would round robin each of them, like you've got eight people in a weight class, two groups of four. They round robin each other. They get out of the winners come out of that group into a playoff section. You could just do the two winners of those go straight into the finals.

But you take the top two out of each group of four and then you put them into a traditional playoff. scenario at that at that point in time i think that'd be fine yeah or you just do the point is you have it all just has to be conveyed to the fighters yeah you can do that too play in fights really just eliminate a couple people right out the gate you could do it too i just i i don't mind an idea of a season i think that that is a way that people can digest and understand sport very very easily certainly in this country i just think that it because it is so different than how the rest of this sport works fighters are not a pro like are not conditioned or prepared for it. The idea truly has to be, hey, you are going to fight four times

in the span of three months. That's a lot. So don't train real hard. Just be physically in shape and show up and fight some dude and see how it goes for you. It's a very different way of approaching the sport, but one that I think is honestly reasonable. I still don't. I'm still not happy of the season format. I don't like the point system. I just think it's silly. Is it better, do you like season format over, say, just a Grand Prix every year for different weight classes? Like Bellator? Yeah. I'm much more Grand Prix. I like that.

But it's not the worst idea to do. I do think that your entire gimmick is one way and you should try and make it work. And if you're just pivoting into Grand Prix, Bellator pivoting into Grand Prix didn't work out too terrifically for them. What did it? Sometimes did it. I honestly, I mean, we got day four and a, yeah. I legitimately like the IFL. Like I thought the IFL was doing something fun and interesting.

You were the fan. And I'd be down for them to try on that. Were you still a back fan? What was your team? What was your team? Who was the Twin Cities team? Did you get a jersey? No, I never got a jersey.

I own almost no memorabilia. I have an A Pride t-shirt. I wish I had IFL jerseys. I mean, yeah, I would absolutely love one at this point in time. But yeah, like I like the idea. of trying to approach this in a different way. I think I just can't be a half measure. I think you got to go a whole hog in or abandon it.

And if you abandon it, I think it's you're doomed to failure. So, yeah. Could PFL be all seasons? Just everything is just seasons and Bellator be actual fights. Just if they're going to do the two promotion thing. Yeah. I think I think you just get, Belator is going to leave. Yeah.

Yes. Bellator is going to exit when their TV deal is up, and then it's just going to be the PFL championship series, which is fine. It's fine. Because, like, ultimately, I do think that that is a model that is interesting, at least, of like, hey, here are our leagues, and here's the Champions League.

And that's, I don't know, football is a very popular sport globally, and people really dig that. So, like, let's try and do something akin to that structure. All right. Thank you much. Let's keep it on Belize. Let's keep it on PFL. People love PFL.

Co-leader. Irish Boy, does it look bad for PFL losing 5-1? Obviously, they own Bellator, but by keeping them separate, does this tell fans that PFL events are lower tier? I mean, did anyone actually think that PFL is going to win this? Like that, the whole concept was not going to say it's flawed, but there are very few people on the planet, even the members of the PFL fighters' families

who knew that Bellator was going to win almost all of these fights, if not all of them. The fact that they got one win was nice, but if Ryan Bader had gone in, as Jed said, and just sat on Hen and Ferrer for 15 minutes, would anybody have been surprised? Would anybody have been surprised if they won 60? Nobody would have been surprised.

If PFL won 4-2, that would have been legit. legitimately shocking to me, legitimately surprising. So I think this went the exact way most expected it to go, like honestly. But does this, for you, Jed, does this change the way you think fans view PFL now compared to heading in because they lost five to one? No. This was a topic that I did not understand. no one cares.

Truly, it doesn't mean anything because I don't know if you guys know this. PFL is Bellator. Bellator is PFL. Finkel is Einhorn. They own Belator. It's the same. They own them. So there's not a competition to be had.

Bellator just is owned by PFL. So no fans are going to be like, hey, man, I'm going to wait for the Bellator product because it's better. And you know what? PFL won't care because if you're watching the Bellator product because it's better, you're still watching the PFL product because they own them. They bought them for Monopoly. This is, no, I don't think, I think this is nothing. This is a total nothing here. Think of his Heinhorn.

Mike, I don't think exactly. Mike, I don't watch too much WW. now, but how much, how much of a comparison is this to Raw versus SmackDown and like, say like, oh, Smackdown, like they had head to head and I don't know how it works anymore, but Smackdown won six out of seven championship matches. I'm going to stop watching Raw. Is it similar? Or is it?

I guess. I don't know. Because it's, I mean. Yeah. But honestly, is that not a testament to this actually like totally hitting? If people, if anybody is. internalizing this is like a conflict that is worth time in consideration. That's a win for PFL because you're thinking about PFL or Bellator,

which is still PFL more than you would be otherwise. Like, this is a win for them. I got to tell you, one of my favorite things about the broadcast was all going all in on this is the first time anything like this has ever happened. Not only that, not only that with M.A. We had Bellator versus Verizon not once but twice. the other thing was this is the first time

in the history of sports in the history of all of sports where two entities from different leagues went to see who's the best have you ever heard the friggin' super bowl dude come on now

the first super bowl was the AFA are you kidding me this whole thing is so funny it's just hilarious never in the history of sports has two leagues decided to see who the better team is

are you shitting me at this I mean if you get it if you get it if you get it be a grizzly be a grizzly be a grizzly bear. That was so funny to me. It was incredible. And Grady and Gator getting all salty during the prelums is pretty bad.

If we had co-promotion, maybe I gave my shot at Fador. Okay. Okay. Like the actual, the actual textbook definition of an old man yelling at the clowns. It was awesome. It was them just totally dismissing Risen versus Bellator was. Incredible. And the Super Bowl.

That was so much cool. And the Super Bowl. The original Super Bowl. And I mean, they were on it immediately. Like that was like the opening bar from them. And then they just kept hammering it over and over. And then bringing up John Jones to put him on blast for this. Like it's his fault.

It was. They were having themselves a night. It was a time. I know we're laughing. But that is good promotion though by PFL. to just kind of hammer that down to people just forget history. Almost just like last week when UFC just kept be telling us that Volcanowski is the consensus best featherweight

ever in the history of the universe. When there's, it's not a consensus best. He's clearly up there, you know, in that top two, three. But if you just keep saying it, then people go, okay. They were being a grizzly. Yeah. Yeah. They chose a bear and they were going to be that bear all the way.

I respected it. It was deeply amusing, but I did, I respected it. But see, PFL wouldn't use a lie. You fight on that lie. Yeah. They wouldn't use consensus. They would make you forget that Jose Aldo ever existed. That's how PFL will handle.

He's the one and only first featherweight champion ever. Yeah. That's it. All right. We have a soup. Max Holloway. Yeah. Like, Max, why is Volk better than you?

Can you explain to us? Because Fight Metrix says so. I love when they go to buy metric. I mean, Max Holloway left away class because he was afraid of, you know, all this, by the way. It's just funny, I know. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

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at Onepelleton.ca. All right, we have a super chat. Yeah. Walsy, do you think Asker Off will return to the UFC? I got to tell you, if you said, Mike, list a thousand questions we might get on BTL, this would not be in my thousand. Jed, do you think Asker Asgraf will ever fight in the UFC again?

I don't entirely remember why he left. He's ever in like ABCA or one of those Russian promotions? Because I know AK and I talked about him sometime last year. He's still pretty young. He's only like 30 or something like that. I just don't remember. Do you remember why he left? His contract just run out and he did not choose to resign?

He left because... I think it was like multiple weight misses as well. I just... One weight. One weight. One weight miss. And I think canceled bouts. He had a...

So he had bouts planned with Perez and Roy Vow... After his loss to Kikar, France. I think after the Royvile fight fell off, he just... They released him. They parted ways. I think it's a big no if he is determined. Probably not. Not because...

And not because of talent. Not because of talent. It's just he doesn't. I mean, you see a lot of unanimous decisions next to his name. That's basically it. Yeah, it says he was released. He requested the release and the UFC gave it to him. So it wasn't like they were, it wasn't like this guy sucks.

He's out. He said, I need to be released. I have health issues. I need to deal with them. And they said, okay, go. And that was it. So I don't, I don't know. Who did he lose to when he had his chance to win the...

Was it Kai Kar-France? Yeah, Kai. Yeah. I think that's the only dude he's lost to. Yep. He was 3-1-1 with the one-drault against Brandon Marino. Yeah, a draw against Brandon Marino and a loss against Kai Carfrance. Otherwise, he beat Benavitas.

He beat Pantosia. I forgot by that. And beat Tim Elliott. Yep. A modern-day Allie Bagotene off. There you go. I thought Moreno beat... I thought Moreno beat Ascar off when they first.

That was a good fight too. But it was super competitive. So regardless, Ascroft is clearly a top tier flyway. Kyoji-Horoguchi is much more likely to come back and much more worthy of your time and energy. Dude, they should just give Horatuchi the freaking title shot against pants. I don't know. I'll just do that. They legitimately should do that.

Legitimately, that is better than giving. Unless Mahi of just like Insta blows over Perez, just give Horoji the title shot. Who cares? Yeah. Except for Horaguchi would absolutely be Pantosha in Brazil. So that'd be tough. Maybe don't do that. That's harsh.

It's a great fight, though. I'd love to watch that fight. It's fun as hell. Yeah. It's right there for the UFC. I don't know why it's not happening. But here we are. All right.

Yeah, what else do you get? Take a couple more. Oh, okay. Oh. I know it's a random. I know doing this on a Tuesday is super weird, but next week. next week it will not be it'll be on thursday it will have a lot to discuss because we've got ingano joshua a big week

next week going to be crazy news to come what the in ghana one yeah looks pretty good promo yeah it's free good promo Jed Mike Casey is 299 better than 300 yes or no and why Jed is you is 299 better than 300

let me pull up 299's fight card right now sorry real quick are we talking about about the part you pay for or the card from beginning to end. Those are two different things. I mean, if it's the beginning to end, 300 is going to win. Even though 299s is also quite strong, but I got to tell you, I don't care much about Joanne Wood, Marina Morose, or CJ Vergara Asu Amabayev. But, I mean, those are the weakest fights, but those are still fine fights.

If it's the entirety of the card, then 300's going to weigh. 300. Yeah. I think it's the best fight card I've ever seen on paper. Yeah. Top to bottom. I think it's the best fight card I've ever seen on paper. It's the best.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Maybe as far as short, there's quality of fighters. Yeah. Yeah. Quality. I got. Just quality and rankings.

Maybe like one of the pride final conflicts. Yeah, you have to kind of go back a little bit. Yeah. But like you got to, I mean, we're talking 20 years back at this point. It's easily the best car of top to bottom. It's just called the last 15 years. yeah yes very much so i just call it uh if you're looking at the main card i pulled it up shana mali man varra poye bin wasandini kevin holland michael vittam page burns uh jdm

pjadongy ann song yodong it's a very strong five uh do we know the bout order for 300 we got six uh cater sterling brachaca sterling rahashka ratitcher sterling is six Olivera Sarukian Yeah, 300's better Geci Holloway Zhang Yan Pereira Jamal Hill It's 300

300 It's better Suruky and Oliver Geichi Holloway Pereira Hill Zhang Yan is Like that's unimpeachable

Even if Pearl Hill is not like the most exciting thing Yeah like Pahrashka Rackage is probably the worst And it's still

year for Haska But like it's 300. It's not, honestly, it's not even competitive. It's 300. I would, I could say 299 is better in, in the future, in the sense that if like Sean O'Malley becomes a Connor McGregor type guy, if Benoit St. Denis becomes the next big thing. If JDM becomes the next big thing, if Michael Vennam page becomes a real title contender. So, I mean, right now, 300 is better.

but in say a year from now, $299, you can look back on it. It could be better. But I think on paper right now, $300 without it out, top the bottom and the pay-per-view card is better. Is that I mean? Yep. No, they're more potential future stars than current stars. Yeah. And I think that's why the hard course, that's why we like $299 a lot because we see that the future is kind of being set up on that card while 300 is kind of established.

you know, these guys are good. Yeah. Dude, $298, $2.99, $300 is a pretty good one, two, three punch right there. It is real good. 301 is going to just be a fart. It's going to be awesome. What was, what was 201? Oh, that was that Atlanta?

What was 201? 201 was Atlanta. That was Woodley. But, but Woodley Lawler? Woodley Lawler, yeah. Right there. You can't see it. Can you see it now?

I'll see it, yeah. What was it called me? Johnson. Who was it, Johns? That was Wilson Hayes. That was Johnson. Wilson, Ace. Do you remember the greatest media question ever in the post-presser to Robbie Lawler at that event?

The post-presser? When Robbie lost and he came to the post-presser. I forget. The reporter, he just worded it weird, but basically he asked Robbie. So, Robbie, why didn't you block that? He just got to say Next of it I go I'm asking that question of a loser

So like did you just not want to Defend the head kick or what's going on there I mean we all saw it I don't know why you didn't do anything Why'd you let him hit you That seems like a bad plan Was that the game plan Robbie? I don't remember that at all

Okay I did No, Robbie gave a funny response. He was like, because he didn't say it quite say it like that, but then Rob was like, so you're asking me, why don't I block it? It was great. All right. I just remember Woodley immediately calling out Nick Diaz and George St. Pierre. I was like, God damn it.

I did remember that. God damn it. Wonder Boy was on the broadcast desk. And he was like, hey, I just rinsed Johnny Hendricks in like two minutes. It's us. He's like, nah, man, go fight Gio. or Nick Diaz instead. And Monopin's like,

oh, come on, man. And everyone knew what was going to happen. And I don't. It's just credit to tie on Woodley because he never turned down a fight. Like he always accepted and showed up. But his inability to figure that part of the game out was astonishing to me.

Like you don't call for those fights when you have a ready-made fight right there. You call for the ready-made fight right there. call for the ready made fight. Got a super chat coming in. Hold on. Oh, hold on. Oh, you continue.

Oh, okay. There's someone at my door and I don't know what they're doing. Okay, they're leaving now. It was so like I, you guys can't see this, but I have set up in front of the window outside that looks out across my front yard. And some dude is just walking up to it and sees me here and clearly not engaging with him and staring. him down like this and he just keeps walking up and then put his hand on my door and I was about to be like, what the fuck, man? Like, you can't just come into this place that I am looking at you with.

So we're good now. We left. That was very weird. I mean, that's live television right there. It was a giant window looking out and he is walking up and I am staring him down. And he comes up and puts his hand on my doorknob to open the door before. stopping because he finally got smart, I guess. Oh, my God.

The most blatant breaking and injury of all time. I don't know what the hell was happening. Take it about. Just a lot of some home invasions on BTO. Yeah, it's super weird. I mean, that's what happens we do this show on freaking Tuesdays. Matija, it looks like lightweight is the only division that isn't just top heavy. Do you agree?

I do not agree with this. Bannam weight is also not super top heavy. Featherweight, also not top heavy. Middle weight. Yeah, no. Well, there are some middle weighty middle weights, but it is also not completely top heavy. How about from a marketing perspective,

a move the needle perspective? Is like, I mean, that would depend. The UFC obviously believes heavyweight is not because they're headline every apex card. with random heavyweights. Yeah, I mean, this is though what we say when those of us who say lightweight is the best division in the sport. It's this. It is the quality extends to the top 50, and it's all just, it's just hitters all the way down.

And other weight classes, there are great fighters, but it does feel a little more concentrated at the top. Though I would agree, I mean, Banim way to think is obviously, I would not say it's top heavy. featherweight is like a little but not that not that much and some of this also just comes from the natural flow of how divisions ebb and flow like fighters come in they hang around at the top it gets a little stacked up and waited until new blood can can sort of flush the system out lightweight is pretty immune to that largely just because the turnover rate is pretty high but yeah flyweight's got a lot of young talent i would not call it super top heavy either either For sure.

I feel like flyweight of all the divisions rotates the most. I mean, I feel, I mean, in terms of we get new talent and flyweight more often, that kind of breaks into that, you know, top 10, you know, kind of, like, I don't know. But, I mean, featherweight, yeah. Outside of Elia, featherweight seems still kind of old. Like now we have, yeah. Lohs are. You got Evalov coming up.

But, yeah, featherweight's still a little old. I mean, Arnold Allen's still, like, around, but now he feels a little more entrenched near the top. So, but yeah, there's feather weights there. But, I mean, if you're extending out, Aaron Pico's 28 and kicks ass at featherweight. So, you know. Yeah, yeah, true, true. Lorone Murphy's real good.

He's coming. There's a lot of things coming up. Like, featherweight is a little older. But he's got some more. Yeah, cool, cool. I mean, Manuel Torres is in the UFC lightweight division. He's probably like the 47th ranked lightweight and he's so fun. I would also argue that light heavy weight is not top heavy because it is simply empty.

There's no top two. It's not heavy at all. Yeah, there's no, there's no heavy. It's light heavy. It's a collection of people. Anything else? Yeah. I feel like you're talking bad about Yuri and I don't like it.

Oh, no. I love Yeri. I love me. I know you mean that. 205 is, I love Alex Pereira too, but it just feels weird. It's like,

to call the division with three people top heavy feels like that's not correct. It's just three doesn't feel like a top. Yeah. All right. Oh, this one's for a super chat, specifically for Mr. Jed.

Oh, thanks, Matisia. Ooh. Cole, Jed need an update on Artega being bad at fighting. It's a great question. He's just bad. I don't know what to tell you guys. You have eyeballs. You've seen it.

I did this on the post show, Mike. You weren't here for this. And I might be a little off on the broader number. I believe Brian Ortega has had 12 fights in the UFC. Would you care to guess how many of those he has outlanded his opponents in? One. Two is the answer. And one of those, he outlanded Tiago Tavar as.

by two significant strikes. Like, it is the only fight he has really won, like from pillar to post, no doubt about it, was winning the whole time was the Korean zombie fight. A terrific performance. But other than that, he just gets his ass beat until he wins. He's the modern day Big Nog, which is cool, but I don't know. I don't know why. I can't say to why I liked Big Nog and I don't like Brian Ortega, but I don't.

And it's all like, Yaya Rodriguez is just a meme fighter. I guess. I don't understand. His whole career has been very weird as well. But yeah, like, Brian Ortega defies description. He continues to win in spite of being one of the worst defensive fighters in the history of modern MMA. And that flies in the face of everything we know about MMA because you know what you know about, like, one thing that's pretty unilaterally true of every top fighter in the world is that they are all defensively good.

most of them are defensively great but they are all at least defensively like viable Brian Ortega just is ungodly tough and has apparently made the the calculated decision I don't need defense because I can't be killed so I just won't do any defense I'm going to put all of my stat points in offense because I am immortal and that has worked out for him very well but it is infuriating to watch and fight people and be like if your opponents would simply not fall prey to the to the downfall, then they would hammer you around the cage like Volcanoffsky and Max Holloway did. But everyone else is falling prey to it. It's, it's infuriating, honestly. And he came so close to beating Volkanowski too. So close to beating Volkanowski too. So close.

So close. He, I truly just don't understand him. I do not understand him at all. I, I once tweeted, before he lost to Max Holloway, I tweeted, and I think is the best tweet I've ever, head. Brian Ortega is going to go on a 10-fight unbeaten streak, defend the belt seven times, and I'm going to be shaking my head and just screaming into the void that he's not good. And he hasn't quite done that, but it is pretty fucking close, man. I just can't get over it. And not to make excuses for Ortego, but in the Holloway fight, too, in the first round, he did break his hand badly. So it kind of basically, the whole fight was done in the first round. So, like, I do hopefully, eventually would like to see

potentially if it makes sense. I don't need to see that one that. Oh, I want to say it again. I want to see it again. With Ortega as champion. That's the thing. Like, I'll watch Ortega fight Ilya Tuporia and he might tap him.

I don't think that that is likely at all. But I also am somewhat queasy at the prospect of putting Brian Ortega one of the worst defensive fighters in the MA against Ilya who is, I think, a wood chipper made man. like just an absolute threshing machine on human legs. It would go so poorly for him, the same that it did with Max,

and the same it did with Volk, but for that 60 seconds of almost incredible. Like it's, whoof. What a moment that would have been for the history of MMA fighting in Brian Ortega. I would have lost my mind. Wrong before I hated Volcanovsky, I desperately needed him to beat Brian Ortega for me to, maintain my sanity. Were you this open about your Ortega feelings during that fight?

I don't remember. I think I was. My breakdown of the fight was, though, that I thought, and I stood by it. Like, I thought that Brian Ortega had by far the best chance of anyone to beat Volcanovsky at Featherweight because the way his game works is the only chance you had against Volkanowski. It's like, you're just not, like, I never thought Max matched up well with Volk, even though Max was very competitive, obviously. Volk's too good at adjusting.

He's got too many tools in the belt. He can adapt on the fly in a way that Max can't. Max is very good at adapting between fights. You saw that from Volk 1 to Volk too, but he's not as good on the fly, whereas Volk is very good at that. And I was like over 25 minutes, the only way to beat him is some big display of violence

that just gets him out of the cage. And I think Ortega has the best chance at that. And he goddamn did. Like he almost did it. And it was, whew. I'm really glad that Alexander Volcanowski is a tough man because if I had to call Brian Ortega, a former champion that would hurt very a lot. Yeah, it does seem like to be bulk.

You have to, it's got to be like just a giant display of violence, almost like Ortega did. And like Elia did do. Like you're like, Bogonowski's not going to lose like a 50, 45 and at featherweight. Like we just. Yeah, featherway, no. He just gets, he just gets 10.9 every round. Yeah, he just gets you. He'll never get 10.9 every round.

he'll just have to get like at some point yeah he's the house he is I call I banked him to that a lot like he's just the house in Vegas if you play long enough over a long enough timeline he's going to make the adjustments he's going to win you just have to bet big on one hand and win and take him and Toporia did it

and Ortega almost did it um guys so many super chats coming in for jed here we go from I think to my fan base is getting smarter is what I maybe not getting smarter. I think that we've now just allowed them to show how smart they are because they've started to do the thing where they just super chat at the end. So then we have to keep going.

An extra hour of content out. Which is why our post show was so long because we kept getting out. We got more super chats. I do it. Get them in now because we got like 10 more minutes. Oh yeah. Here we go. Coles chat.

Get after it. Achilles. Jed, even though you don't have an opponent, I hope you lose today. Mahayev steamroll Perez. I can think that's the question. I'm picking Mojave. Does he steamroll express? I don't know.

I think he wins. Mahihaev hasn't really been steamroll. A lot of people. He's just been beating them, you know, consummately, which I think is sort of just where his game is. And I had a lot of hopes that he would develop differently and still super young. So plenty of time. but he's not mean enough, which I think really takes steam rolling largely out of the equation. He needs to be a lot of meaner.

And maybe we'll see it. Maybe he got mean over this weekend. Now he's going to come in and actually try to hurt Perez. But he's kind of Damien Maya. And he is just trying to gently cradle you to sleep and be about his business afterwards. All right. We have a few more questions. Do you want to fly through them?

Yeah, yeah. It was super chatting with you, Keyless. Yeah, but thank. All right, we're on fly through these questions. Here we go. Boom. Do Mike and Jed think this is an apex card that was done on the road because of the PI opening in Mexico? I assume we're talking about last week.

Not this week? No. This week was just supposed to be the, yeah, this was just supposed to be the Saudi card. And then they didn't. Yeah. And Dana said some things that were not true about how. They chose not to go to Saudi. Saudi was like, yeah, dude, you're not going to give us G.I.G.

Junior Rosen strike for a main event. All right. Between Steve Erseg, Umar, Maha'Amagam Adaf, Mohamedov, Mahamukhyah, at Javid Bashar, at which prospects walked out of this weekend with the most buzzed? Do you see any of them getting upset? No on the upsets. So Steve Versaig could be upset. I'm not even sure it would really qualify as an upset because most people didn't know who

Steve Urseg was until last year when he came in. and got a ranking because he beat David Vorek. So I don't know if that one. He's probably the most likely. But again, not even a major upset. I think it's still Omar, just because Umar has all the hype around him. And so even though this is a tough fighting against someone, no one knows, if he goes out there and wins, people are just like, quit ducking him.

Just somebody fight him so he can get to a title because that's what we need to be with him. Yeah. It's probably, I'm going McHiaf because if he wins, he's getting a title shot. I'm getting a title shot. That's a reasonable argument. Which fighters in the PFL ator could their superstar building blocks? It's, okay. Could be their superstar building blocks.

Okay. It's AJ McKee and Aaron Pico, but it's AJ McKee. Like, that's put the promotion around him. Johnny Applin too. He's an interesting cat. Yeah. Interesting dude. Jason Jackson, got to start making potential?

I got to say I'm more. I don't think he's there, but he's really impressed the last few times out. Starts finishing people. He's much more interesting than the decision machine, which is what he was for most of his career. Yeah. He's had two straight ass kicking machine. He has. I'm now open to the ass kicking machine being a viable name.

But the 2928 machine, is largely what he was. Again, I watched this man win the LFA title by split decision in Atlanta, Georgia in a fight that was truly horrible to view. And then he went to Bellator right after that. Yeah. Yeah. I think Kenan Ferreira is a guy you can build up because he's just a massive dude.

And you can just build up big, huge, powerful guys. He looks apart. He looks apart. Pretty easily. Cedric Dumbay, obviously, easy answer to this. He's going to get more popular globally. With every fight. To do me, it's kind of dumb, but.

For Cedric, right? Yeah, for Cedric. That would be fun. Yeah. Smart call-off. I think it's a good. I think it's a good call-out. It's a really good call-out.

And those seeds. Build up a little rivalry over the next couple of years. I like it. All right. Can Don Davis and the co-leader in combat sports ever really differentiate themselves from UFC when they only offer more of a, and it'll turn up to the same product.

Kind of I already touched on this. Yeah. It's the yes or no question. Yes or no? Yeah. Because I do think they are differentiating themselves from there. Sure. Is Nemcoff a more competitive fight for Francis than Henan is?

It's not even a question. Yes. Though I will say, you know, we talk about the Francis thing if you want to. I would be more compelled from an MMA standpoint to watch Nimcov versus Francis. I absolutely want to watch Francis versus Hennon Fahedha because he's so big. He's so big. And yes, he will lose because I don't think people understand that Francis Ngano has like a god tear chin because he does. Steve Mitya, Mietich, who is not a man who hit softly, could not really even hurt a Francis

in Gano who was entirely gassed out. For 20 minutes, he was just a hit. hitting Francis and could get no reaction and Francis had no gas. Francis has a phenomenal chin. So Faha could knock him out and would just get blown up at some point, but sign me up. Watching giant people get launched into space is funny as hell. I would love to watch this fight. You were there, Mike, in Boston.

Remember the post presser with Stipe and Francis? And Francis looked like he was just like disappointed. And Steve and looked like he just fell off a building. He was just tired. Francis was more terrifying in that post-fight press conference than he ever was before. And that was after he got, I mean, he got dominated by Steve Bay, like real bad, real four rounds. I respect Eddie Hearn because I think that they recognize this because Eddie Hearn was on the Mauer on Monday and was like, you know, I'm genuinely concerned about this fight, which there's reasons to be, though I don't think he like, I think Anthony Josh is going to beat him. but he just came out and said,

what if Joshua hits at Willie's best punch and Francis is just there? Because that could happen. And at that point, this is no longer Anthony Joshua's going to knock him out. He's going to have to box really well for 10 rounds and just sort of beat him professionally. And like, yeah, like that's what's going to have to happen.

Because if Francis hits Anthony, AJ's going to sleep. And if AJ hits him, I don't think that the same is true. All right. Two more questions. Do you think Arnold Allen could be a champion still kind of feels a little unlucky since the avoid of loss? No.

I've been a big Arnold Allen. Been a big Arnold Allen supporter. I think that Aron Allen has the tools to be a champion. I do not believe that he has the appropriate mindset for it, which is a harsh thing to say because I think that he is awesome. I love Arn Allen. I also think that there's a part of sports in general, and certainly this one, we're being like, how many well, like, rational, well adjusted people are really good at fighting?

There aren't that many of them out there. They're all just insane people. And I think, I genuinely think, Goddardall might be too smart to be like a world champion because it's a weird sport in that nature. I think over five rounds he probably would have beat Mopsar of Lave, but I also think that he could have done more to win that fight, but that's not how he approached it. Yeah. He said two chances.

He said two chances. I mean, they gave him the Holloway fight and then they gave him the Mobsar fight. And I think honestly, if he beat Mobsar, probably would have a title shot. I mean, he was very competitive in both fights and then a little short. And I think Holloway is always going to be a bad style matchup. for him. I'm Officer again, five rounds. I think he could have won it, but I don't think he's beating Ilya. I like Arnold Allen a lot. Ilya is a crazy person and we'll just hit him real

hard if things are going badly. And Arnold, that's going to go bad for him. So I think no, which is a shame because I love Arnold Allen. Can Arnold Allen actually fight for a championship? Not win championship. What do you actually fight for a championship? I think that's... I think he still fight for one. Yeah, okay. I think that's the big, I think, I think just fighting for a championship means you can be a champion. Yeah. You just have a good night when someone has an awful one. Yeah.

I believe you can't lose again. You cannot lose again. I won't go that far. It's basically what it comes down to. I'm telling these, these, these guys are coming, man. They're coming. And if he loses again, like, coming at featherweight. Lorone, the Joe Anderson Brittos, like all these dudes are coming.

I'm not sold off. personal rankings. Like, they're all coming. These dudes are coming. All right. It just. Yeah. But, like, I think Arnold Allen can beat

Yer Yer Ruggigan. Like, Jaspi, Miamov's on a nice little run right now. And I don't trust Naimov at all. I think he can beat Yai Radriguez. And if he does that, then he's sort of just back. Like, I think Arnold Allen would be a horrific style matchup for Brian Ortega. Both because Brian Ortega is best. bad and also because Arnold Allen is not likely to succumb to the sort of chicanery that Brian Ortega can inflict on people.

Like he just will not engage in the parts of the game that are bad for him. And Brian's just screwed. Like he's not going to take Alan down and Alan's just going to hit him a bunch. She's a better boxing. Like I think he could beat Brian Ortega comfortably. So I think he still get to a title fight. I just don't think he's going to win it at this point. All right.

Yeah. The leash is very short. Last comment. Much love for the UK, Jed Mike, Casey Gritcho as always. Yes. Thank you very much. Next week, obviously, will be a little different. My Thursday is just slammed this week.

But next week, we'll be on the eve of the aforementioned Anthony Joshua versus Francis and Ganoe fight. We'll be on the eve of the eve of UFC 299. Next weekend's going to be crazy. Next week's going to be crazy. maybe we'll reveal some news. I don't know if it's going to go on in the

MA hour tomorrow. Maybe that'll be one and it's announced, but next week's going to get a little crazier. I don't think I know what you're talking about. Okay. Well, good. We'll break some news for you too. I don't know.

We weren't really sure what the plan was until yesterday. Now it's like 100% of that. Oh, maybe I do know what you're talking about. We'll find out. Okay. Find out off here in a moment. There's going to be a lot of shit happening on MAAfighting.com.

So stick with us for Jed, for Casey. I am Mike Eck. We'll be back next Thursday, and we'll do this again ahead of a massive weekend in combat sports. The iconic voice of Estherlin takes you home. We're out. See you next week. Love y'all. Love y'all so much.

This has been Between the Lins, a memory of fighting production on the Vox Media Network.