MMA Fighting - BTL | Prochazka vs. Pereira, Pavlovich vs. Aspinall, UFC 295, Dana White Announces Title Fights

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

The UFC returns to Madison Square Garden this Saturday for UFC 295 with two world title fights — Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira for the vacant light heavyweight title, and Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title. With Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic no longer happening, how do these title fights, and the event as a whole, hold up on paper? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss the Prochazka vs. Pereira main event, what could be next for the winner, and if Pereira wins, what does that mean for his combat sports legacy as a two-division champ in just his 11th pro fight, along with being a two-division Glory champ? Additionally, they'll discuss Pavlovich vs. Aspinall, where the heavyweight division goes, if one of the participants could interest Jones enough to stick around after an eventual fight with Miocic, Dana White announcing Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis, Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria, and Sean O'Malley vs. Marlon Vera 2 to headline the first three pay-per-views of 2024, Jailton Almeida's win over Derrick Lewis, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and The Sporting News' Andreas Hale.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Andreas Hale: @AndreasHale Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide.

Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition. a BTL. It's another Thursday.

We are two days away from UFC 295. No, we are not getting John Jones versus Steepameyotich. But what we are getting is an incredible light heavyweight championship made event, a fascinating interim heavyweight championship co-main event. These top two fights are great. We'll talk about Saturday. We'll talk about the UFC's first quarter of 2024 and how that's shaping up. And we'll do some quick cleanup work from this past

weekend and joining me in doing all of this, the two combatants. Let me introduce them first. He's Mr. No Hot Take, Mr. No Gray Area, one half of the No Betts Bar team, the man behind damn they were good. He's the cannonball kid from MMAFighting.com. Mr. Jedmishu, his first appearance since slaying the Beast. That is Mr. Ryan Campbell. Hello, sir. I should have just gone out on top, honestly. I should have just retired forever after beating BC. So once in a lifetime accomplishment, much like what Alex Pere is about to do this weekend. He and I are of the same ilk at this stage. So I'm excited to be here, Mike. Keep this on Jed, please, if you don't mind, because I forgot all about this. Last time you were on, you left us wanting more at the

cannonball. And then this week, you show up looking a little difference, Jed. Look at the hair or lack their own. Had to take it down. Look, I've wanted to get rid of it for a while. Finally had enough for locks for love. And we took it off and donate. to a very good cause. Who doesn't support children with cancer? So, you know, that's where we're at. Look at that. He gave you the spin.

Looking like Zach Morris in 1991 at Bayside Eye. And speaking of... I could just get the big phone. Speaking of... You need the big cell of your telephone. And speaking of short hair, much like myself, back on the show for the second time, I had a cash in a favor here,

and he was gracious enough to accept the proposal. He is the combat sports. senior writer for the sporting news. You may hear his melodious tones on Sirius XM and many other things. Welcome back to the show, Mr. Andreas. Andreas, how are you, my man? Yeah, I don't like seeing this O-N-1 next to my name,

but I'm feeling good, though. But I don't like this O-N-One, bro. I don't like it. We got to fix that. It's all right. Brock Lesnar was O-N-1 once upon a time. Look what he all went on to accomplish. That's true.

Okay, I'll accept it. AK was like 0 and 11 to start his BTL run. You had a look at that every single time he was on. But that's neither here. Rockmezzar won his first professional fight, by the way. Eh, we're not counting whatever, whatever the nonsense. We only count real fights in the UFC, Casey. UFC, UFC.

Yes, well, UFC 295 going on Saturday. We will get there. But first, let's clean up from UFC South Paulo real quick. Figures important to discuss what happened in the main event. It's a topic that still divides the MMA community in a lot of ways. Jailton Almeida absolutely dominates Derek Lewis this past Saturday over 25 minutes. A couple of 50-44s. Some scored it even more dominance, even some people on our website.

Scored it 50 to 40 for Jailton Al-Beta. I certainly did not. But while the performance was dominant, it hasn't really been all sunshine and roses for one Jailton Al-Meda, getting some heat for not finishing Derek Lewis, the fight, not being aesthetically pleasing, if you will. Jed, we'll start with you. We have not gotten your reaction to this fight on these wonderful programs.

On the post-fight show, the Prince of Positivity, AK, gave Al-Meda a B. I gave a C-plus. New York Rick gave him an F, Jed Mishu. Where are you grading? That's obviously insane. And F is very clearly a nuts maneuver. B-plus-A-minus somewhere in there. Look, I know that this is, one, weird to hear from me, the King of the Hot Taken.

Two just odd in this day and age, but I have the brain capacity to hold two thoughts in my head at the same time. And I think that's what we can do here. We can all acknowledge that like, I don't know, winning a 50, 40 decision is dominant and good and better than losing or not winning as dominantly. But at the same time, that can still leave us wanting more, which is what Jailton did. I think it is the expectations for him are probably a little higher than is maybe fair given what he has done. But at the same time, like, he could have tried harder to finish that fight. Like there was an opportunity for him to accept a little more risk into his profile to finish the fight. And I've had this argument with a bunch of people over the years.

Casey and I have sort of competed here at various points for various fighters. I think that it is less risky to try to finish fights than it is to, I'm just going to sit on this dude for five full rounds and attempt the same arm triangle 700 times. Because we saw that like there were moments when the fight got back to the feet and started. Maybe Derek Lewis had a chance. Whereas it's hard to be perfect for 25 minutes. It's easier to just finish the dude. And Jailton either wasn't willing to accept some risk, which I think is certainly a part of this.

and also just doesn't have the tools. He is still a limited fighter. What he can do is great. And in a weak-ass heavyweight division, it might be good enough to just win a belt, dude, like still totally viable, but you would have liked to see him try to ground and pound a little more, try and throw elbows from down to position.

The time he did try and open up strikes, Derek Lewis looked like he was pretty close to getting out of there. So I think it's fair to assess the faults in that performance while also acknowledging, dude, he hung a 50-40 on a car, on a guy, man. Like, that's pretty freaking good. Like, how are you going to call a 50, 40, and F?

That's just bullshit. So, yeah, I think it's okay to see both sides of the performance and recognize it for what it was. Andreas, Almeida checked off the most important box. He won. But this fight happening a week before the interim title fight at UFC 295, did Jailton Almeida get a high mark from you, especially with the timing of that fight?

No, not high. if this was a B, if he had degraded. I mean, he was dominant, yes. But in a division that is thin, in a division where you may be a fight away from getting a world title opportunity, you also need to impress. And a lot of people weren't terribly impressed

with that particular performance because he didn't go after the finish when he seemed like he had a pretty vulnerable Derek Lewis on his back for a majority of the fight. But he was dominant. So I can't, yeah, given New York Red giving him an F, bro, what's wrong with you? They're like, you know, he dominated the fight,

We're like, there's no effing domination. That's crazy. But you would like to see a little bit more because somebody like Jelts and Almeida, a lot of us has pegged them as a potential future title contender. But if you don't impress, which is one of those things to separate the good for the great in most divisions, if you're not impressive in getting that finish, you may lose out on that opportunity. So a B, B, B, minus performance. Look, Dirk Lewis is always going to be dangerous when if he gets back to his feet.

So I agree with that to that point. Every time around starts, you got to worry about. about Derek finishing you, but Jelton managed to get the fight back to the mat. You just got to finish the guy. And did he say he had tiny forearms and that was the issue? I don't even know what that's all about. But bro, at some point, you have to go for that finish and you have to execute. He didn't do that.

So he gets a beat from me because he was very dominant, but I would like to see him have a sense of urgency to finish the job. Andreas Almeda called for Cyril Gahn after the win, which in my opinion was the correct callout, you know. The number one, number one rank guy in the division, according to the UFC. Not a lot of, not a lot of grappling prowess to say the least. So this is a smart call-up, but I'm not sure this is the fight that will, A, happen, or B, answer the remaining questions we have about Jailton Al-Meda. But who knows? Maybe the UFC does go and make this fight. So do you think that's the fight they make or maybe go back to Curtis Blades?

Is there a different fight that makes sense to you? Where does Jelton go after this performance? Yeah, you probably go with the Curtis Blaze fight. Look, Cyril Gine ain't going to teach a jack shit. Cyril Gine can't wrestle. He's going to get taken down. He's going to get submitted. That's pretty much what's going to happen.

We all know it. All you have to do is get past the striking. I'd rather see a Curtis Blade fight because he's going to have to deal with somebody who's going to bring the fight to the canvas as well. I think it's more intriguing. And based on this performance, you don't get the number one guy. I'm not giving that to you. And you don't give the number one guy with a serious hole in this game that you are going

to exploit. I'm not ready for that. I'd rather see him fight Curtis Blaze will work from there. Jed, I don't think Cyril Gahn will even entertain that fight. He wasn't going to entertain anything else but a title fight anyways

and then after watching Jelton Al-Meda just smush Derek Lewis for 25 minutes, I don't think he's touching this fight with the 10-foot pole, but like you have been saying on Twitter, this is a great call-out. This is actually perfect, a perfect call-out, but how realistic is it?

What do you think he gets now? I say it's marginally realistic. I think he's got a shot at it. Not that Cyril wants it. But I don't think Cyril gets to call his shots. Like, Cyril got mushed like 10 months ago, man. Like, I know you beat Sergei Spivak, but my dude did Sergei Spivak. Like, you're not calling shit for shots right now.

Maybe Cyril Gan does get the winner of the interim title fight this weekend because I assume that that's what will happen. The interim title fight is for all intents purposes, title fight. We'll talk more about that. So maybe that's where Cyril goes. But it also wouldn't shock me if the use you just like, we're going to, we're going to make you do at least one more before we put you back in there. I think it's a terrific call out though, you know, squeaky wheel gets the grease. Why fight Curtis Blades? Who will wreck your shit?

Because that is my big takeaway this weekend. You asked for a grade. My big takeaway from Sao Paulo was, oh, okay, that's the ceiling. We found the limit where Jailton Almeida ends and it's Curtis Blades. Curtis Blades is not going to get taken down at will. and he's probably just going to rough house Jelton Almeda all over the cage for 25 minutes after the fact.

So like that's that's just how I feel about it. I think he's got a great shot against Cyril Gahn, but it is at least an elevation. Like Cyril Gahn is slightly more difficult to take down than Derek Lewis, I think. Maybe not. I honestly don't know. But like it's a great callout. And it seems like you might get it because who the hell else do you give him?

Right. Like we got the interim title fight coming up. Where does he go that we, I guess Curtis Blades. I don't know how long Curtis is out. So I think calling that shot was a good move. And I think he's got at least some chance to make that happen for himself. Would you favor Curtis Blades, Andreas, in that fight after what we saw on Saturday? Yes.

Not by a wide, wide margin. I'm very curious about Curtis Blades and, you know, the tread on his tires at this point. And I think Jelna Mennas can still make improvements. but I think that Curtis Blades will be a lot more physical in the infighting and the grappling game than, you know, Derek Lewis was. So right now it would give Curtis Blaze edge, just not a wide edge. I think if I was, it was a bet in line, it would maybe be a two to one favorite at this point, maybe one and a half to one.

Yeah, I want the Blades fight. That was such great matchmaking to begin with. Like that was the one that was going to answer a lot of the questions. And look, it may not be aesthetically pleasing, but if Jelton Almeida does to Curtis Blades what he did to Derek Lewis, finish or no finish, man's going to be a big problem. He is going to be a big problem. I mean, if he does it, then he's the best heavyweight competing in mixed martial arts.

Like, that's just it because I don't know. We've seen Curtis played lose in the exact same way. Some dude who hits real hard, hits him real hard, and that's it. That's not Jailton's game. If he dominates him, then I don't know who's stopping him doing that. That'll be an interesting fight, but there's some interesting fights coming up to Saturday at the Mecca, And that's where we're going. The main event of the show.

The point for round one goes to Jed Mishu. One to nothing. Welcome back, Jed. You get a point. It's a good hair. Yes, it's the haircut. And congratulations for all of that. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too.

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but the main event is for the vacant light heavyweight title. Yuri Pajska returns for the first time since his incredible title-winning battle with Glover Tashara, first fights in suffering the shoulder injury that Dana White describes the worst shoulder injury he's ever seen. And he faces Alex Pereira, the former middleweight champion. Andreas, if we're not getting the casual appeal and the aura of a John Jones versus Steppe Mietich fights fight at Madison Square Garden, it's hard to find something better than this to headline this event, wouldn't you say? Oh, hell yeah. Like, sometimes when a fight falls out and we all know like john jones was going to smash stepe meotches that was a glorified

squash match for john jones this on the other hand far more competitive far more predictable 223 has been a very weird year but i'm going to go out of limb and say there's no way this fight's going to suck right like just no way anybody tuning in or spending their money for this fight is going to get a cracker for as long as it lasts so i'm not mad at it i get it it sucks for new york you would like to see John Jones. It takes, you know, the car is taking a little bit of a hit for the casual fan, but for the hardcore, for the people that are watching this show, for us, this is what we want. We want the banger. We want the cracker and somebody's probably going night, night. Jed, we're two days away from this. We know how excited you are. Paint us a word picture of how

excited you are for this Phrasca-Perer fight on the eve of the eve of this main event. Mike, I say it all the time. And the last like month and a half is really reinforced. forced it. The UFC is just like one or two injuries away from making a good fight card. If you leave them to their own devices, they're going to fricking bundle it. Like, they just don't know how to do it. But then somebody gets injured and suddenly it's like, oh, oh, the good fights are here. We don't have to watch this mercy killing of John Jones and Steve Amityitch that no one is under any illusions how that's going to go. Instead, we get to watch the fight that like pretty universally was the most anticipated

for the back, you know, three month stretch of this calendar. We did a show or an article. We did something like a couple of weeks ago before the John Jones-Depa fight fell out. It was like, pick your three most anticipated fights of the remaining of the calendar. None of us had Stepe John

on the list because no one gave a shit about it, but all of us universally were like, yeah, it's, it's Prairie. Like that's the one. So now that gets to headline. And we get a real heavyweight title fight in the co-main event. I know that some people out there will have their feelings, and you're allowed to have

those feelings. You're wrong, but you're allowed to have them. This is not an interim belt. This is for the actual heavyweight championship of the world, because John fighting Steepa doesn't mean anything. Didn't mean anything in the year of our Lord 2020, and it sure as shit doesn't mean anything midway through 2024. Steepa will have not fought for like three years and not won since this presidential

administration came into all. office. Like there's no, it's just not a real heavyweight title fight. And John, John beats zero gone. That's absolutely great. He's going to beat Stapy and he's going to leave the sport if not retire. So the guys fighting this weekend, they're fighting for the real heavyweight belt insofar as that means something. And it's a double fight. I have no idea what's going to happen. It's incredibly confusing fight because they have a combined four minutes of fight time or something like that. But these are two fights that are awesome. This event, got so much better by John Jones and Steve A.

Fallow. Maybe it's not as appealing casually. Connor Birx was telling me about the vibes, just not the same as a John Jones fight week. I never identify with John in that way. And so particularly for a fight that didn't mean anything, I'm way more pumped about this event. $2.95 is sick. I'm super pumped for Saturday. We'll talk more about some of the things you just said,

including the co-mate event in the next round. but let's stick with the main event, Jed, because whoever wins this fight, it's just incredible statistically because Yuri will become a two-time UFC champion in just his fourth UFC fight without actually losing the belt in a fight, while Pereira, who's already a two-division glory champion,

soon to be Hall of Famer, can become a two-division UFC champ in just his 11th professional MMA fight, which is just ridiculous. So short-term, Jed, it's incredible for either guy. we can break down this fight all we want it's just going to be awesome but i want to ask you this question what's the more interesting world moving forward in your eyes a world where yuri reclaims the title or a world where alex perera's light heavyweight champion i mean first we we don't have to

pretend like yri wasn't the champion yri never left our top spot in the rankings yury vacated the title wasn't really forced to but did it just because feelings or whatever he's been the champ this whole time. Technically, this is not a title defense. This is just title defense. He's still the champ's title defense. And the whole Glover and Goliah, all of that weirdness with Jamal Hill, et cetera. That's just an odd asterisk year.

He's been the champ this whole time. Obviously, even if we don't hold that to be true, the more interesting outcome is Alex Pereira continuing to break M.A. Because he doesn't make sense. Like he's this is like 10th fight or something very stupid. Like some impossibly few number of fights overall, much less in the UFC. And he's going to be one of eight people, nine people if he wins this to be multi-champ, multi-division champions in this promotion history. Like he doesn't, he broke our rankings when he won the belt and he's just been breaking our understanding of how this sport works forever since basically since he joined up.

So it's obviously more interesting because again, like he'll, he'll deserve it. If he goes out there and beats here, he deserves to be the champion. You could convince me that like 10 different dudes in the weight class could beat him. The same way you could have convinced me that a middleweight. Like he's he is the anomaly of all anomalies. And he's guys like him, stories like him that will make this sport really fun, even 20 years into my fandom. Andreas, do you agree with that that, look, it's very cool. Alex Pereer winning the belt, two division.

champ in such a short amount of time like that's insane but long term for this division which has been broken ever since john basically vacated the belt we thought when yerry wanted we had some semblance of normalcy even though yury is far from normal and we love him for it but then the injury happens he vacates the belt even though i don't fully believe that's what happened i think he was a friendly nudge so to speak from the ufc but do you feel this division is more interesting with perera's champion or with Uri is champion or and then whoever loses like the questions remain like what's next for Pereira if he loses this fight what's next for Pajaska if he loses this fight like what's the more interesting long-term storyline for this division based on what could happen

on Saturday for me is Yuri Pajaska and here's why year Pajaska is just a fascinating individual a man who locks himself in the dark for days at a time has so much appeal and I feel like if he didn't get injured, he'd probably still be the champion of this very cursed division. I think what the UFC is missing right now is a long-reigning champion. I think there's a crazy stat out there. I believe that a title, a new champion has been crowned 14 times in the last 17 months, I believe. That means the title is just constantly changing hands, which gives people a very hard time

to sink their teeth into one fighter sitting on top of a division. I think Yuri Pahashka could be a guy if he beats Alice Perea who can rule this division for some time. There's some interesting matchups there. Alex Pereer, while he continues to break MMA, Jed said it. He looks very beatable by a host of other fighters in this division. And he may not be the champion by this time next year. I think if Yuri beats Alex Perea, that dude could maybe even challenge John Jones is one of the greatest light heavyweights in the history of this division. and it's a long shot because MMA is such a volatile sport.

But if you give me one guy that I think could make a reign and rule and has that intrigue that people are going to tune in and want to see this man fight or see his interviews or hear what crazy shit he's done, it's Yeri Pajasca. So I think the future of the Light Heavyweight Division rests on his shoulders if he wins. But if Alex wins, I don't give a shit, he just keeps breaking MMA and it's going to be fun to watch. But give me Yiri in this conversation.

Jamal Hill versus either of these guys is just super fun and super intriguing but we'll see if that even happens because you don't know how long Jamal's going to be out for we don't really need to sell you might not be good either that's the other part that's what I'm saying he had one awesome performance

and prior to that we're like he's not very good because he keeps not being very good and then he showed out against Clover I don't know what the hell's going on in this sport anymore Mike yeah but that's why I want to see like that's why I want to see him against either of these guys. That's that's that's super that'll answer the questions. Absolutely.

Again, we don't need to really sell you on this fight. It's going to be absolutely awesome. So we won't really break it down. We'll have a preview show obviously tomorrow. We'll get a little bit more in depth. But before we go to the co-made event specifically, Andreas, the UFC's trip to MSG, always one of the major cards of the year. And they of course wanted star power at the top before John Jones got injured.

We have the two title fights. We'll get into the co-made event round three. We have a strawweight fight. that matters in the featured spot between McKenzie Dern and Justcandraj. Matt Fervola versus Benoit Santini is a wild fight. And we get Diego Lopez vying for that rookie of the year spot

against Pat Sabatini. That's your main car. We get some interesting prelims as well. But for what this MSG trip usually brings for the UFC, how would you grade the overall card? C-plus. The New York cards, the prelims are always packed with names and talent.

This is a, it's pretty top heavy. Again, the New York cards are pretty appealing to a casual viewer. It's a card other than International Fight Week, whenever the UFC goes to New York, that's where everybody tunes in. This feels like a hardcore fan's wet dream, but a casual fan, on the other hand, may opt to pass because you don't have a John Jones or you don't have a Connor McGregor headlining this card. So it's a C-plus card on the casual scale, which is the New York MSJJJN.

G scale. But as a card as a whole for us, it's an A. But for the New York, for the lineage of those New York cards, it kind of falls in the middle. Jay, what do you think? Like, let's just look at UFC 281 last year. Main event was Pereira winning the title against Zizi. Zhang Wei becomes the champion against Carlos Sparza. Dustin Poyer, Michael Chandler, Chris Gutierrez, retired Frankie Edgar, and just the saddest way possible. Dan Hooker, Claudio Poyas, feature prelim, Hanata Moikano, Brad Redel, and Moikano cut the promo of the lifetime. Nine Span said Dominic Reyes into another realm. Aaron Blanchfield had her coming out party.

Like there was, this is a loaded freaking card. Matt Frivolta at the big moment. Carlos Olberg was in the first fight of the card. Where does this rank? Like how do you grade this card as a whole just based on what the UFC usually brings to MSG? I think this is better than 281. I think with the John Jones-Stepey fight, this feels, again, might feel bigger because John John Steppe is being billed as this thing that matters.

But like, really, that's the same fight as Carlos Bajo Wiley-Jang. It's just a murder that we're pretending isn't a murder for whatever reasons. Instead, we get two dope fights. Getting Porre is, that's better. Like, we're missing out on a critical, like the Poet-Channler feature bout is better than Dern and Drage feature bout a little bit. But I think the top two fights are better. and then the rest of it's still really good.

Matter of all, bin was Santini, is going to be a banger. Your fight's going to be insane. Diego Lopez, Pat Sabatini, is going to have six crambles all up and down that thing. Not high on name value,

but probably going to be a high on entertainment. Steve Ursaig, decent little fighter. Lupi Godinez I'm always in for. I think this is certainly less high on name value, but I think the outcome here is probably going to end up better and slightly more entertaining.

And again, The only way that main event isn't like a fight of the year is if somebody gets booped early. Like other than that, that fight's going to be absolutely insane. So this is as good to me as the last like couple iterations at NYC. We'll see how it plays out. This could be two stars. Two Shulin Stars here. It's a great card.

Two Michelin Stars. It's pretty good. Explain to Andreas what two Michelin Stars means. Andreas, are you familiar with the mission? Michelin guide and how their star system works. Oh, yes. I've been trying to get into a Michelin restaurant for the last two months. Absolutely.

Oh, I stole their guide to rank fight cards of. Hey, this is, if I'm in town, I would go to this. I would take a journey. I would go out of my way to go to this. I would take a special flight to go to this. If I'm in the northeast and it's a couple hours away, I would go to this card. I'm not going to buy a plane flight up to NYC for this event, but I know you will, Mike.

for you but I'm not going to do that but if I were you know somewhere somewhere in the trainish area DC I could catch the the train up there hell yeah I'm doing that that makes it clear yeah let's be clear I'm I'm I'm going to play to NYC not to go to the fights but to hang out of GC in the studio that's why I'm here and better hang out and hang out with paca porter on the watch party because he's going to be on for the co-made event which we're going to talk about and a matter of moments the point for round two goes to the man with the shorter hair, Andreas. It's one to one. Nicely done.

Good job. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. All right. So let's go to this cold man. Hell yeah. Sergei Pavlovich versus Tommy Aspidall. We got this incredible fight for the interim heavyweight title.

The fight we were probably going to get anyways, whether there is going to be a title on the line or not. The bad part about it, it is short notice, but both guys are in. They signed the contract. And they are quite confident. that they will emerge as the new interim heavyweight champion when the night is over. So, Jed, you talked about this fight as, you know, part of the one-two punch, but you saw some media day scrums.

Tom Aspinall, you know, continuously went back to, yeah, I wish it wasn't taking this fight on short notice, but just hearing some of the storylines and how Tom has basically prepared for this moment, almost his whole life with his father basically saying, hey, the most important thing you can learn in training martial arts is don't get hit. I kind of feel like it's all going to come full circle here because if he doesn't get hit, this is going to be a really interesting fight. Where are you out with this one?

Excitement levels, one to 10. Where are you at for this fight? There's fight rules. This fight is the true heavyweight. Like, if being the heavyweight champion means you're a person who is actively participating in the weight class and is going to like continue to do that, then this is, this is legit. And it's like a totally, totally legitimate heavyweight title fight. It would be better if they came on short note.

but look, we're still getting two of the top five guys in the world, kind of guys that everybody has earmarked, along with Jailton Almeida, as sort of the next iteration of this weight class moving forward. So this is it. As far as I'm concerned, this is a true heavyweight title fight, and I don't have any idea what's going on. Like, it's, this is the most fascinating fight in the world

because you could tell me anything happens here and I'd buy it. The only outcome to this that I would be surprised by would be if it goes 25 minutes. But even that, like I can see, like, well, we've never seen either dude compete longer than really five minutes. So if they both just gas out and then hold each other for the back 20, I guess that's explicable. You could convince me that that's the thing that happened. But if Sergey Pavich comes out and shoots a takedown and just R&C's time, aspiral, I won't be like shocked. Like, yeah, we just don't know anything.

for as much talk is made out of Alex Pereira being, you know, so, so new to the sport and not having this experience. Want to know a fun fact, Mike? Alex Pereira has more fight time than these two men combined, and you can even add in Yiri Bahashka's UFC fight time there. He has more UFC fight time than the other three dudes in the big fights this weekend combined. That's how little we know about Sergey Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall. We know that when they touch people, they fall and die. As it, that's the only things that we know. And so I don't know what's going to happen.

That makes it really fascinating to me because they might suck. They might not be good, but they're certainly good enough in this weight class. And it rules. I love the chaos that is going on in this entire sport right now. Andrea, same question for you. your excitement levels. And do you agree with Jed that the winner of this fight

at least should be recognized in a lot of respects as the actual heavyweight champion? Like, will you come out of this fight being like, hey, if Tom Aspinola, Sergey Pavlovich win, even with John is the champion right now,

this guy's the number one heavyweight in the UFC, bar none. Hell no. No, you have to beat John Jones to be the heavyweight champion of the world right now. Look, I get it. I get it.

Look, I get it. I get it. Jed, I completely understand what you're saying. But this is the rationale here is because you don't believe that John's going to fight either of these guys because the man's looking probably retirement right in the face. But the reality is- It also beat his ass right now because he doesn't have a working shoulder. So, you know, what's up?

Hey, but look, John is a champ. He beat Cyril Ghan. He just smooch the man. He is the champ. Aspinall and Pavvice, the winner of this will be the interim champ until they are elevated to heavyweight champ. John Jones is the greatest fighter on the planet today. And he holds the title. I can't give the title to somebody else

who, like you said, we don't know if these guys suck. I can't call them the heavyweight champion of the world and say they're better than John Jones. Not today, not tomorrow. I don't give a shit what happens on Saturday night. No, John Jones is still the reigning defending heavyweight champion until Dana White says give up that belt.

But to the other point, where do I write? Like, what is my excitement level? It's a 10. Want to know why? Because what Jeff said, I don't know what the fuck is going to happen. I have no idea.

I don't have a clue. Like Pavlovich has nuked everybody. He's never had a submission in his career. He can submit Tom Aspinall and I'd be like, cool, I get it. Tom Aspinall. He just merks everybody. He went to the second round with Andre Laulovsky, but who gives a shit?

He could get a twister. And I'd be like, that checks out. I have no idea what's about to happen. This could be Francis Ngano versus Derek Lewis. We're two guys to stare at each other and we're all pissed off. I have no idea, but that's why I'm excited about it.

I can't wait for the fight to play out because I have no idea what the hell is going on, but I'm excited at the prospect that somebody's probably going to die within 25 minutes. I'm here for that. Check, please. This, this Francis Zingano erasure will not stand. Best fighter in the world, my ass.

I want Francis Zingano outboxed Tyson Fury. That man's got him all the way. He did not outbox Tyson Fury. He just did better than anybody anticipated. He did not win that fight. Y'all got to relax. Pride rules, baby. Pride rules. One man took a knee, the other didn't.

Game. I can't. Look, coming off the playground, we all know who won that fight coming off the playground. Ain't nobody would be like, well, Tyson, you really, you jabbed him up. They didn't be like, Tyson, you suck. That's fair, but it was a boxing match in Saudi Arabia, and there were judges, and Tyson Fury outboxed Francis Ngano's craptastic as he looked. He won the fight on the scorecards, rightfully so.

Francis Gano just surprised the hell of everybody. He won the fight on the scorecards. Didn't win it right here. He didn't wonder where it counts in my heart and in my mind. Jed, I don't care about your heart nor your mind. I don't give a shit. I don't care. John Jones is still the best UFC, MMA fighter in the world.

I don't care what anybody says. So that man loses. Well, we could talk about Francis and Tyson and our thoughts on that fight all day long. But, Jan, I want to go back to you because you said something interesting earlier. And I was kind of surprised to hear you say this because you've been on the side that even if this Jones-Stepey fight were to happen on Saturday, you felt like John might actually stick around and try to get to or maybe even break Stepe's UFC heavyweight title wins record because that's something that he hasn't accomplished. And what a way to go out if you accomplish that feat as well. Now we have

this injury, we have this delay, et cetera. It's obviously changed things. Do you see a world now with all these factors in play where after John fights Depe, if he wins, do you feel? Do you feel feel the same way where you think John might stick around to unify the titles in order to maybe get to that number? Or do you think the way this is played out, that might not happen anymore? He just beats Steep A and rides off into the sunset. I think you should at this point. I don't think he will. Mainly because he like not so suddenly just sort of said it at various points has kind of explicitly hinted that the Stepe fight will be maybe not his last fight forever, but at least the last fight forever. But at least the last

fight for a while. And it does make sense as an end point for him. He's not gaining a ton by accepting any more risk here and fighting this other crop of up-and-comers. My contention was always pretty simple. He beat Stepey's two title defenses away from then having the most light heavyweight and the most heavyweight and then really just having an unimpeachable case for goateness in that respect. And so I thought that that would kind of look like it would be viable.

Like, okay, beat Steepa and then you're going to fight Sergei-Degiate. Pavlovich who all you have to do is take him down and we saw what alice are over him dead to him like john can obviously replicate that grand five years ago you know but whatever for the sake of this argument we're going to go with that and then maybe his last fight is is a big one against tommy aspinall or hell jailton a made us the dude then all you have to do is stuff jailed and out made his takedowns it just seemed like a really clear path for him to do that i think the injury is probably going to make him reevaluate the the wiseness of doing that and stepe is just the fish for the least amount of risk.

And if he beat Steepay, then I think that he's probably just done. And, you know, good for him. He had one of, if not the absolute best careers we've ever seen. And he deserves to go out on top. Andreas, you know, I've been on record many times. And we talked about this a little bit yesterday on your show that if this fight were to happen on Saturday and John won, Steepay would retire. John would at least at minimum take a long sabbatical,

at least for a year and see if things happen. But now we have this delay. And Tom Aspinall is on the cusp of something big happening right now. And for some reason, Tom has been the only guy that has caught John's attention. Like John doesn't really tweet after fights, didn't do it after any Sergei Pavlovich fight or anything like that. But after Tom Aspinall's most recent win, he got John's attention. So do you see a world?

Where John fights either of these guys in a unification bout, should he beat Stepe, if that fight happens, let's just say international fight week. Do you think he would stick around maybe 2025 and fight one of these guys? Or what do you think actually happens here? If Sergey Pavlovich wins, hell no. The risk-reward factors is too much for John to even hang around.

Also, you've got to consider. John is about to turn 37 July of next year. I wouldn't see him hanging around to fight Pavlovich. If Pavich starts as Aspinol, I just don't see it happening. because Pavlovich is not a big enough name and John's reached that level of his career where there isn't too much more

that you can do to add on to your legacy aside from beating the so-called greatest UFC heavyweight steep in Miotis. Aspinall's a little bit more intriguing. If Aspenovych beats Pavlovich and makes a successful title defense and then proves that he's like this budding superstar, I think John would entertain that fight

because there's more financial upside to fight Aspenov than there would be for Pavlovich. But both ways, I don't see John sticking around very long because as we know, you know, he's considered the greatest fighter on the planet right now. And the only real fight for him is Francis Ngano. Like, none of these other fights really matter. Nobody in the UFC matters to John Jones other than Steepa. And then, I mean, we know it's not going to happen unless Dana does some funny shit.

But Steepay, I mean, I'm sorry. Francis Ngano and John Jones is the only fight that I think peaks John Jones's true interest. Aspenol would have some work to do to get there. Pavlovich, that shit ain't happening under. no circumstances. John will just ride off to the sunset to call it tonight. Last thing real quick, Jed,

I'll start with you. Low-key banger for UFC 295. What's the fight that is flying under the radar that nobody's talking about that you feel we could be talking about on the post-fight show? Low-key banger. I guess let's just go real low-key. If you're going to be bare,

be crazy right. Josh Van, Kevin Borges, two flyways who just scrap their ass. off prior to getting to the UFC. Maybe not the most interesting fights on their debuts. But I mean, these dudes, if you ever went back and watched them competing in the regional circuit, they're just hell on wheels, both of them. No one is going to care about this fight at all.

It's like the second fight of the evening. It's fly weights. But man, they're going to get after it to kick the show off. Andreas, where are you at? What's the Loki bang? He stole you. He stole you. He stole your.

I was like looking at this car because I, Obviously, the Fervola St. Denise fight is a bang. I don't think it's not sneaking up on anybody who watches MMA. But that was the fight that I was very intrigued with. I think it could be an action-packed fight. I think it could be exciting. The rest of this car, I don't know if there's anything that's going to sneak up on us and surprise us like a low-key banger.

I was thinking about the Lupi-Gadignia's, to meet the Ritchie fight that could be actually pretty good, but it could also suck. There are a lot of rights on these prelims that could potentially be trash. We've had some, look, man, in the year that Sean Strickling became the UFC middle, champion of the world. Nothing ever makes sense. So I can't pick anything that completely stands out as a low-key

banger except for the Joshua Van fight. I was very interested in that fight. I don't have another answer. So I'm just going to agree with Jed, damn it. I can change mine to the third round of Jared Gordon, Marco Madsen, because it's always funny to watch Marco Madsen be dead tired and just try to survive for five minutes. He's going to be stone-gast and just hang in. on.

Shout out to Kyeong-Hilkang, Mr. Perfect, John Cassidate, I think that fight's going to be pretty wild. Catch weight at 138. Nazim Sattikoff and Slava Klaus should be a lot of fun. If Sattakov doesn't wrestle, that fight's going to be real fun. If he just looks at any tape and is like, all you have to do is shoot a double on this, oh, me, and he will go down, then that fight's going to be boring shit. Well, we will find out this Saturday at UFC 295, but the UFC made some big announcements. Dana White has already revealed.

the first three main events. So the first quarter 2024, we'll discuss that next. Point for round three goes to it was a very close round, but when your opponent says, I have to agree with what he just said, it's got to go to that man. Jedmishu, it's two to one. Yeah. Let's go fly

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You gift the good stuff. Dana White took to social media. There was some rumor and innuendo. What's going to happen at UFC 297? Is it going to be Isl Mockachev versus Charles Oliva. Is it going to be something else? Turns out the middleweight title on the line of all places to send Sean Strickland for his first middleweight title defense. You send him to Toronto, Canada to take on Drickus Duplessi.

That will headline UFC 297. That'll be the second of two title fights right now. We're Kel Pennington, Meyer, Buona Silva on tap for the vacant women's bantamweight title. Finally, we get the answer to that question, who will win the belt after Amanda Nunes? as February, February 18th, we found out. TBD as far as location, although California seems to be rumored, Ilya seems to think it's going to be in L.A.,

Alexander Volcanowski versus Ilya, and then March, I believe it's March 9th, according to Sean O'Malley. It's going to be Sean O'Malley versus Marlon Chito Vera 2 for the Bannamway title, the Sugar Show's first Bannamoy title defense that's winning the belt against Algemaid's staring. Andreas, your reaction to the first quarter of 2020,

four, three main events, three title fights. You like these? If you would have told me at this time last year, that a UFC 297, the middleweight title fight would be Drickus Duplexiz versus Sean Strickland. And we get Raquel Pennington versus Maya Brunner-Silva, I would have said, get the fuck out of here.

What crack are you smoking? Alas, here we are. That fight, that entire card, unless he put some bangers on. It might be in competition for a piss poor by-rate for a pay-per-view. However, the other two title fights, to Poria Volkanowski, of course I'm interested in that. Vote going back to Featherway to do what he does best against a guy who think is probably a legitimate threat and we don't know where Volk's psyche is at after two-second loss as the Markshev.

I'm interested in that. While I'm very interested in Sean O'Malley versus Cheeto Vera because Cheeto won, this should be Marab. And I'm so sick of it. Like, what does Marabreau have to do to get to the? the title opportunity. Dana just doesn't like him. All that being said,

it's going to be a sellable fight. The promo package should be fantastic for it. The bill should be there, because I don't know how much longer Shaanomalley can act like he never lost the Cheeto Vera. But that's what's going to happen. It's all intriguing. So the first card,

stinker. The other two main events, very interested in. I'll give it a B. I'll give it right on with a B. Because, man, DDP and Strickland. What?

What happened? How do we get here? I don't know, man. I think I'm high. Jed, as the man who... It's the best. I was going to say, as a man who earned one of the few moral victories on this show by boldly predicting that DDP would beat Robert Whitaker and then getting skipped over, we thought maybe he'd be screwed after Sean Strickle won the middleweight title and how things have played out. Justice for DDP gets his opportunity to fight Sean Strickland in Toronto, which I think is still pretty weird, but it's still going to happen. and then we get Volcanovsky Tuporia,

fresh off the Volcanovsky knockout lost to Makachev. Long as it's not in January, it's not too far back from that, but at least it's not in January, and then we get O'Malley Veritou, which will be probably the biggest fight you can make in this division right now. Andreas gave these announcements to B. Where are you at? Today, say.

Look, and we'll start with the Toronto. It is weird that this fight's happening in Toronto. You know whose fault that is? The entire nation of Canada. Give us a fucking fighter, who's good, man. Like, that's, that's it. Whether you can't, who do you bring to Toronto other than, I guess, Charles Olivera to

headline pay-per-views? Canada doesn't have anybody anymore. Get back on it. Like, let's, let's make something happen, Canada. So instead you get this weird fight, which is, I love this fight so much. I love this fight so very, very much. It's the fight. I'm like, I said it as soon as Strickland won the belt.

I was like, the fight I'm probably the most interested in the entire sport is him versus DDP because it's weird and it's stupid. and it's hilarious to me that Andreas points out, who would have thought a year ago? A year ago, this is where we'd be. Not me. Not me. And instead, like, it's going to be awesome.

And then just the dynamics of the fight, Sean Strickland's endless gas tank versus DDP, who appears to be gassed in three minutes in every fight, except for he got the nose job, so maybe he's good now. I couldn't love this fight anymore. It's just delightful. I'm a huge fan of it.

Don't care at all about the Comey an event. I'm not even sure we should treat it. Like, we should treat this weekend's event as the true title fight. I don't think we should treat My Boy in Silver v. Rocky Pendington as a title fight. Not because they don't deserve it, but because that whole weight class should just be burnt to the ground. So, you know, that's where you're out there. 298, like, I'm happy. This is what I wanted the whole time.

I just want Alexander Volcanovsky to fight dudes his weight and not just fight back. Max Holloway over and over and over again. Just fight dudes in your weight class and beat them if you can because there are a lot of dudes you haven't fought. And Ilya Tupuri is chief among them. I think the only knock I have on this fight is it still feels a little quick to come back after what we just saw Volk do, but it not being in January makes that a little better. This fight is on paper and on the merits is obviously the best of this bunch.

And I'm super, super pumped for it. I think it's going to be a banger because I'm very high on Tupori. and obviously Volkanowski, one of the best fighters we've ever seen. And then you cap it all off and part of me wants to agree with the Darius. I'm like, yeah, why can't Mrob get it? It's not that Dana hates Mora. Maybe he does. I can't speak to that.

Sean O'Malley's nobody's fool. He's not going to fight Rob Dahlishvili. I can't imagine a person he is less likely to fight than Rob Follishvili. There's simply nothing in that fight for him. But here's the trick. He's going to lose to Chito. We're about to live in a World War Chito Vera. is one of like four champions in the UFC

who might not be one of the five best fighters in the weight class. Chino's going to beat O'Malley. Like it's an awful style matchup for Sean. And he's taking because he thinks he could win and it's certainly the biggest money. And instead he's going to lose his belt and Chino's going to be the champ. And this is going to rule. I love everything that's happened over the last couple of weeks.

I'm super pumped for this slate. We're kicking off 2024 well. What's the most intriguing fight of the three, Jed? I'm going to go Strickland duplice. I think you could, the probably real answer is Volkta Puria, but I just have a special place in my heart for this very weird matchup between these two dudes that a year and a half ago, everyone would have been like, they'll never fight for a title,

much less they're going to fight each other for the true and honest belt. Andreas, I assume you don't agree with Jed here. No, absolutely do not. And I mean, to Jez's point, this is the division that had Robert Whitaker, Israel, how to sign, Alice Perea, and these two are fighting for the middleweight title? This is ridiculous. Because they beat those homies. Man, I don't care. It's weird, but it's true.

It's weird. They dummyed Israel and Robert Whitaker. They made them look like rank amateurs. I don't understand it, but it happened. It doesn't make any sense, and it would make even more sense that fight ends up sucking, because to your point, like, Schaustra's not terribly. exciting. DDP dies after after three minutes of every fight, but then he surges, that fight could just be trash. That whole card might be utter and like, it might be garbage. But I'm going with Superia and Vote because Vogue is, he hasn't cleaned out the Featherweight Division.

As great as he is, there are names still hanging around. And Seporia has been just ultra violent lately. And we don't know what Vogue is at this point. That post-fight pressure, where he talked about how much he needed to fight and how he doesn't. doesn't like to be inactive because of the dark thoughts he had. Like, he needs this turnaround. But the body and mind play tricks on each other. And Tepoyas is the worst person to test that against. But we will see.

We will see. I'm very, very intrigued by this fight. Because if Volcanowski loses another fight, remember we were just talking, having this conversation about he could be one of the greatest mixed martial arts ever if he beats Islam. That was back in January this year. He could potentially win three in a row. M.MA is so unkind.

to people that lose because once you start losing, you usually can't stop. That's why this fight is really intriguing to me. And if Toporia becomes champion, that division becomes even more intriguing because guess what? Max Holloway might find a way to get that title back. So there's so much going on in the featherweight

division that I love this fight style-wise, mentally between these two fighters, what it means for the future, what it means for legacies. I'm picking that. And then the O'Malley Cheeto fight, dude, I'm saying the same thing, Cheeto's going to beat O'Malley and just fuck up everything. So sorry, your

cash cow is about to get beat. Good job, Sean, for picking the guy that's going to beat you. Last thing on this. It's going to be so funny. Well, it's interesting because two of these three matchups are very strange in a lot of respect, even though we knew O'Malley and

Vera was coming, but we have contenders who are going to be deserving more. And then Toporia Volk, we knew this was coming anyways. Andreas, who is the most to lose of these six guys? Volkovsky. By far. To everything that I just said. The man was in the conversation of being one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all

time. You lose three in a row and you become Chris Wythman, Luke Rock Cold. You become one of these champions that people thought were going to be great and then two years from now, we forget who they are. And that's crazy, but that's just how MMA moves. Vogue has

everything writing on this. Because I know people will give an excuse to say, well, he fought that lightweight against Mockchiev. Losses are losses to people. Especially when it comes to goat conversations. You lose, nobody cares. You just lost. And losing three in a row, I don't know how it affects his psyche as a human,

not just as a fighter as a human, because then you start wondering, how good are you really? He has everything to lose against Teporia because his legacy is on the line. Everybody else is something to gain. And even Sean O'Malley, as much as he's a star and the company is riding his shoulders as terms of mainstream success, he can lose and we'll just be like, ah, that's cool. But Volcanovokinowski has already proven to a lot of people, that he deserves to be in that conversation.

He was ranked number one pound for pound, but he loses. It's a different conversation. I mean, to be fair, Volk did pitch a perfect game against Yahia Rodriguez and between those two losses. So that's true. Has not lost a featherweight in the UFC. And there is a lot running on this. But at the same time, if he loses to Ilya, he's probably going to get an immediate rematch. So he has the chance to get it back.

And then you look at Sean Strickland, who Jed has become just an overnight sensation, especially in the United States of him fighting in Toronto against. again is weird. DDP kind of ins and outs with the UFC in a lot of respects, but highly touted up in Commerie. He's had exciting fights. Marlon Vera is over, win or lose. Sean O'Malley's over winner lose,

but now, especially after what Francis did, Sean's talking about boxing fights and becoming a massive star. And if he beats Cheeto Vera, all of those things are in play, but if he loses, at least for the short term, all those things are gone for the time being. So is it Volk, who has the most to lose of these? six guys or can you make an argument for somebody else?

I'm going to go Amali. I'm not sure it's right. I think Andreas might be correct here because everything he said about Volk is spot on, man. Like we talk about it all the time. I've been on this program arguing at the top of my lungs that for as good as I was into Volkanowski is he is not greater than Jose Aldo as a featherweight because the resumes aren't the same. One dude was a dude for seven years and the other dudes beaten the same dude.

beaten the same dude three times or whatever and and having having people be like no never lost bro 13 seconds homie whatever like okay like just wait father time comes for assault motherfuckers like it's gonna come and if it comes to revolt it's going to come violently if if ilia tepore is the dude to handle it because the only way he gets down is violently and it it'll make everybody reconsider his entire career. That's unfair, but that is how this game moves. But I think even if that happens, I think Volk still has cemented himself in an echelon, in a pantheon of greatness that won't get taken away from him, at least not for one performance. If he sticks around and just starts losing and does a BJ into his career, everybody gets reconsidered. But I think this one fight won't

cost him that. But for Sean O'Malley, this one fight is everything because he goes out here and he beats Cheeto. It's going to be the biggest fight in the history of this weight class. It's going to be one of the bigger fights of next year based on sort of how popular both these two dudes are. He can write his own ticket. And if he loses, he can't. And he's young, maybe he can get back to him. He'll still succeed. I'm not saying he won't be a successful business person and fighter. But if he loses this, he's never boxing Javonzo Davis. He's never doing any of those things. And while I think that's outside of reality realistically, at this moment in time, if he goes and beats him in a pay-per-view that sells 800,000 buys, he goes and

beats Cheeto, that becomes more of an option. The UFC is going to be more willing to open that door up for a guy like him, even if he's not the best band winning in the world. It doesn't matter. He'll just be in that level and then he can command that. So a loss of Cheeto is going to take away a lot of future business for him. He can still have a lot of business, but I think he is going to lose by far the most dollars and cents if he loses this upcoming fight. Interesting times. Interesting times. 2024 coming together. Just like this matchup here on BTL, the point for round four goes two. I mean, we just had it in the third round. When you agree with the opponent, the opponent gets it.

Andreas, it's two to two. Let's go. Yeah. Who could have seen this coming? I mean, this never happens on BTL. We never go to the knock our round. And so something different. We're in rarefied error, gentlemen. This is history of the making. Right now, we go to the knockout round. Each of these individuals will get the same question. They will each have 60 seconds to respond.

Without Brian Campbell here, we don't have to worry about the time going over. And once they give their responses, we will go to the peeps. You guys will go ahead and vote in the chat. And we will decide a winner. I believe the poll may be up now. I'm not really sure. But we'll figure it out. Jed, you are the winner from two weeks ago, the most recent winner on the program.

You want to go first? You want to go last? Mike, what do you think I should do? I don't know. I think you're going to have fun with this either way. I've got a helper here. I'm going to ask my buddy, my buddy, the eight ball. Oh, magic eight ball, should I go first?

Reply, hazy, try again. Oh, magic eight ball, should I go first? This is riveting theater, folks. Better not tell you now. One more time. Magic Game Ball. Should I go first? If that thing explained.

Okay, you got asking again later. So we're going to say no. We're going to go second since it refused to get it. Three in a row. Wow. I mean, if the gambling gods would just be on your side sometimes. Like if the match gateball gave you those three answers for the Michelle

Waterson bet that you made, you'd be in a whole different place right now. But that's neither here nor there. Andreas, we will begin with you. You have 60 seconds. We got the main event and the co-main event for UFC 297.

UFC 298 has his main event. UFC 299 has his main event. But one of the big questions that has come from these announcements, what about UFC 300, which we assume is going to happen in April. So we're going to do some fantasy matchmaking right now, Andreas Hale.

Not only you're going to book the main event for UFC 300, but you're also going to book the co-main event for UFC 300, which is going down possibly in April. Who the hell knows? Maine and Co-Mane. for the historic UFC 300 pay-per-view event, and go.

All right, the main event will obviously be Connor McGregor versus Justin Gagee. No, not Michael Chandler. We're going to send Connor to the hell pits of fire and brimstone because that is the all-violent fight that I think everyone wants to see. And if Connor believes as much shit as he talks, he doesn't really want to fight Michael Chandler, well, guess what?

Now you're going to go fight Justin Gaichie. Do that. And then we will. do Charles Oliver and Islam Machashev will have an all lightweight UFC 300 because the future of the company rides on because you got to figure out if Connor wins he's probably going to get a lightweight title fight so that's these ultra ultraviolet main and co-main of UFC 300 where we get Connor McGregor and Justin Gaichi in a battle to the death and then Charles Olivera and Islam Machachiev to really figure out is Charles not good enough to meet Islam or is Islam just truly the

man book it give it to me argue with your mother that's what I want. Damn. The BMF title getting top billing over the light, the undisputed lightweight title. Now this is,

I mean, this is madness. This is madness. And where we're getting Sean Strickland, DDP, this, I mean,

nothing's out of question here. Nothing's out of question. Jed, we go to you. Fantasy matchmake time. I have a feeling where I think you may be going with one of these whites, but I'm not sure.

UFC 300, main event, co-main event. iron it out for us. What are we going to see in April, potentially? One minute on the clock, go. So, I mean, there's a lot of ways to go. And I love what Andreas did, but he's just dead wrong.

One, Islam and Charles aren't going to fight at 300. Ramadan's going to get in the way of my boy doing his business for that one. And then I would love, I'm the original Connor versus Gachy. I've been calling for that for like 10 years at this point. I would love that. I don't think, I think they are. going to do the two bites of the apple and do Connor on 301 or whatever instead we're going to get it it's going to be john jones stepe a headlining 300 john it's going to come back a little earlier

a little faster on the timeline they're going to expedite it it's not like he needs a full train camp to beat stepe's ass he won't be fine they're going to do that and your combane that's where things get weird because you could do a lot of stuff i'm going to go on a limb here for the co-main i'm going to say that comane is going to be Alexander volkanovsky ilia teporea to because Volk doesn't know how to protect his own brain health. He's going to try and turn around real fast and he's going to get God again. There you go. Both are intriguing fights.

I am stunned, Jed. I'm stunned. I didn't get like a magic wand prediction. DDP Izri would DDP is the champion? Yeah. I thought about it. But I don't. I just, yeah, I didn't want to do that.

And it feels more likely that Volk will be the one who tries to turn around quick. than DDP will. Well, cast your votes, everybody. I believe the poll is up. Who wins? Is it going to be Jedmishu? No cannonball to be had this week, so I don't want to sway you. I also almost went Grasso, Shevchenko 3, but I don't think anyone would be excited about that.

Could get Zhang Wei Yanjo now on that card. You could. I, surely that fight's going to go boost like 298 or something, right? Jed, how do you not book a UFC 300? Like how? Because they're going to do it with 301 because they'll just make the money anyway. No, Connor likes to make history. He likes to own shit.

He wants to own UFC 300. That's what he wants. That's what we're going to get. They didn't book him at 200. They tried. But him and Nate, like, had this weird thing where they took each other's backs. It was great, great theater. Yeah.

And then instead he was 202. Like, they're just going to do that with them again. It would make sense. It would make a ton of sense. But. If they do it, it's going to be Michael Chandler. It's not going to be gay cheap, which sucks because it would be way cool if it was gay cheap. But they're not going to have fun.

I have fantasy booked the shit. I'm not trying to use any kind of reality. I ain't thinking about no damn Ramadan. I'm fantasy booking this card. I'm just trying to predict the future. That's where we're different. You know, I try to see all the angles. Yes.

Well, cash your votes. Tomorrow, 1.30 p.m. Eastern, everybody will have the UFC 2.95 preview show. so get excited for that. There's a lot going on tomorrow. I'll have the UFC 295 Ceremonial Wayans. Gamebred Bear Knuckle. Back at it again tomorrow. That card's freaking crazy.

It's Friday. Tomorrow night. That's free on YouTube. Is that the heavyweight thing? Yeah, Roy knows. In Allen Belcher. A lot of UFC, Randy Costa, Jason Knights on that car.

It's going to be freaking insane. We get a live MMA hour as well, 6 p.m. Eastern, live from Citywiner. in New York City. If you can't get a ticket, too bad because they're sold out, but you can watch it all on our YouTube channel, starting at 6 p.m. Eastern with Ariel and the crew,

some special guests should be lots of fun. And then, of course, Saturday, People's Pre-Fight Show with myself and Casey, and then watch party. Jose's on site in New York. Lots of coverage. So just stay with us. M.AFighting.com, as Jedd likes to say, it's a tremendous site.

Casey is here, which means you probably have a winner. We do. We do. Okay. Your winner today with 57% of the votes is Jedmishu. It's the haircut. It was the damn haircut. It's just too good.

You know, it's not the haircut, Mike. It's the giving to children. They wanted to support my gift to the children. I support them for supporting me. Thank you. Thank you for that, guys. Well, what else would you like to say to the peeps? You get 30 seconds to talk about whatever you want to talk about.

I don't know if there's a fight circus events coming up this week or something you want to promote. What do you want to say to the peeps? Not this week, but there's, I think they're going to have another one coming this month. Always tune in to Fight Circus. They're the only honest people in the business. Shouts to Bellator, you know, you had a good run. Your next week, probably the last card of all time. Looking forward to it.

Let's go out on a high note, guys. And it's been a good year. pretty pumped about $2.95. So let's have fun. Andreas, we appreciate you joining the program. As you can see over, at least from what I'm looking at your left shoulder, but your right shoulder, I see the Our Heroes Rock poster. I know a lot's been going on with that. You and Big E were in New York. Can you tell the folks a little bit about that? Yeah, we had a screening for our cartoon, Our Heroes Rock at the Urban World Film Festival. We actually sold it out. Me, Big E, Jonathan Davenport, who was a designer of pro wrestling

gear. It's a cartoon we worked on for over two and a half years. We finally had a world premiere, which means the wide release is coming soon. So we had a great response, but stay tuned. Mike, hopefully I'm back here and trying to get a dub. So would I get that dub, I can promote the actual release of this damn short, but I can't keep showing up here if I'm going to keep losing. And I can't believe I lost that vote. That was very disrespectful. But yes, our heels rock. We had this world premiere last week. And stay tuned for more information on that. Are you a Niners fan? Is that what I'm seeing over your shoulder as well?

How's that going for you? How do we feel? I feel good. Tough. I know it's tough, but we needed that by week. Debo was back. So I'm feeling pretty good about Jacksonville.

Look, we're still going to get to the NFC championship at least. We're that good. I'm feeling fine. I ain't worried. No concerns that Brock Purdy is not very good if he doesn't have Christian McCaffrey and Debo out there. No,

because he's going to have Christian McCaffrey. Debo, Kiddling Ayuk. So it's going to imagine if Brock Hardy sucks. That helps. That'll be a good. I don't know. I might be a competent quarterback with that. Me too.

I could get a few touchdowns. Indeed. I mean, look, you could have Mack Jones as your quarterback. And, well, nobody really wants that unless they're playing the bills apparently in like two drives. But hit the music, Casey. We're done. Speaking of the NFL, I saw the greatest stat of all time.

You know, Atlanta guy, not a Falcons fan. Bijon Robinson has one. touch inside the five yards this season. Houston has allowed their kicker to be a running back for a field goal once this season. Same number, guys. Arthur Smith, freaking genius. God love them Falcons.

28 to 3, baby. 28 to 3. Let's go. Atlanta Sports are a misery. Maybe Bellator's final card and much more for Andreas for Jed. Casey on the once and two is the iconic voice special. Let's teach you home. I'm Mike Hack. Back next week.

Good night, everybody. Love y'all. been Between the Links, an MMI fighting production on the Vox Media Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line, but first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.