MMA Fighting - BTL | REACTION To Dana White's Fight Announcements, Dustin Poirier's Retirement, UFC Abu Dhabi

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

UFC CEO Dana White dropped a ton of news on Tuesday in regards to the UFC's October pay-per-view lineup, including Alex Pereira getting a rematch against Magomed Ankalaev for the light heavyweight title, with Merab Dvalishvili defending the bantamweight belt against Cory Sandhagen in the co-main event of UFC 320, while Tom Aspinall defends the undisputed heavyweight championship against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 321. Did the UFC get these fights right? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to White's big announcements, the stakes involved for all of the championship competitors, along with the Jiri Prochazka vs. Khalil Rountree bout for UFC 320. Additionally, they put a bow on UFC 318, Dustin Poirier losing his retirement fight to Max Holloway, Poirier's legacy, Holloway's ceiling at 155 and his next move, UFC Abu Dhabi this Saturday headlined by former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker facing the surging Reinier de Ridder, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Alexander K. Lee and Guilherme Gruz. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Guilherme Cruz: @guicruzzz Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. On M.A Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn, welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to all of us. Happy trails to Dustin Porier. And ladies and gentlemen, you've been asking about it

for the last few weeks. We're the classic BTL boats. Well, they are back today. We have some MMA fighting in fighting on the program. We have a lot to talk about. UFC 318 is in the books. We have several title fights that are on the books now. The UFC is back in beautiful Abu Dhabi this weekend and a whole lot more.

So let us introduce the crew for this matchup. First, it's great to have this man back on the program. The Brazilian beast himself from M.A.fighting.com, the one and only, Guillemay Cruz. Ski, my brother. How are you, sir? I'm back. I'm back. And we're fine. Thank you very much for having me on this spectacular show. I'm very honored to be here because that means my opponent is getting a win.

And he desperately needs one. So I'm happy to be here. Yes, the aforementioned opponent is the Prince of Positivity himself. He is one half of the on to the next one matchmaking kings. And he's my best friend also for him, a funny friend. dot com Alexander Kaylee, aka welcome back. What is happening here?

And it is your fault. It is I. To the show. It is I. M.A. Fightings. Number one, Botafogo fan, guys.

The number one, the number one football club in South America. I, you know, someone has to fly this flag. And if it's got to be me, I'm proud to do it. You know, listen, they won.

Oh, whoa, what's going on? What's what's going on? How's this hat? Wow, what a coincidence? Guilla, are you, are you also, are you also a fan of Botifogo? Yeah. Are you? Oh, I was not.

I also loved Guillauga, oh, wow. I had never, one of the chances. This is beautiful. Guy sent me this beautiful flag to celebrate their historic treble last season. So shout us to Botopogo. The number one team. Listen, I'm a Celtic guy, Olympies and Tottenham Hotspur. We're talking about the number one team in South America.

Botafogo all the way, Puerto Fogo. So thank you for that. Yeah, I'm happy to be back, guys. I'm happy to be back. I'm excited. I'm so happy. It's Guida, get to share the show with. So, yeah, I think that's all that needs to be said.

I mean, I see some people commenting. Should I, am I supposed to bring this up now, guys? I mean, we can talk about it. It's obviously big news, but, yeah. Yeah, Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan, AK, has passed away at the age of 71, I believe. It's being reported as cardiac arrest. And I think everyone sort of has an up and down relationship.

with how they view Hulk Hogan. If you were a wrestling fan in the 80s and 90s, you were obviously very familiar with Hulk Hogan in the ring. If you continued following Hulk Hogan's career after that, not the best stuff, if we're being honest, but if we're talking about what he meant to the world of pro wrestling AK, he's a Mount Rushmore kind of a guy, is he not? I mean, drawing power, superstard him,

and you can make a strong case that if, without Hulk Hogan, WWE is certainly not the position they are in right now. Yeah, I mean, it's just worth bringing up on the show when you think about his influence on, like you said, W.O.E, which, of course, influences all the other combat sports promotions, influences UFC. I know people hate to admit it, but there's such a strong connection

between professional wrestling and MMA. That's just how it is. And, of course, not just W.E., but, I mean, obviously Japanese promotions have a huge influence on MMAs and all that. But, yeah, Hulk Hogan dead at the age of 71, TMZ reporting it as a cardiac arrest. rest and you know, listen, thoughts and prayers to him and his family. It's impossible not to bring up, you know, the success, the massive box office success that

he brought the fact that he's been a mainstream figure for the better part of the last 40-something years. Like, it's crazy. Again, I imagine a lot of us who became, you know, legitimate combat sports fans, probably as children, we were watching professional wrestling. To this day, I think a lot of us still watch professional wrestling. but Hulk Hogan was a big part of that. So I know there's a lot of fans out there.

So, of course, if you guys are feeling some type of way about the Hulkster being gone, totally understand, as Mike kind of alluded to, his legacy is very complicated. You know, if you guys have ever dug into anything about Hulk Hogan's background or even are aware of the, you know, 2015 incident involving him making some truly, truly, truly, truly disgusting racist comments, then, yeah, you might not be, you know, you might not exactly be torn up. But, you know, in this moment, we'll just say, well, we can see. celebrate what he did in the ring.

We can celebrate what he did for fans. If there are fans out there who are inspired by his career, then that's great. But we have to touch upon it just because, again, if we're talking for wrestling, if we're talking about MMA, we're talking about combat sports, it's hard to ignore the existence and the history

and the influence of Hulk Hogan. But other than that, I would tell people, you know, form your own opinions about it. But there you go. Hulk's gone. Yeah, Hulk made an appearance at UFC Tampa. about seven months ago. He walked Colby Covington to the Hallowed Octagon

for his stoppage loss to Joaquin Buckley. Had a hard time walking. It was kind of weird to actually see and be right next to it as they were both walking to the octagon. But Guy, any thoughts on the passing of Hulk Hogan? I'm not a huge pro wrestling person. In Brazil, it's not such a big thing.

When I was a kid, I used to play. games and that was this, this, uh, WWE game. I think I have no idea. I don't really know the name. And I remember his figure because like the mustache and all that. But my, but the big thing that made, uh, I, I knew who, hookhogan, because of this movie that he did, has nothing to do with the movie. He was, I think it was a nanny of something like that.

That's, that's the big thing that comes to my head, it comes to my head when I think about hookhogam. There's this is any match I don't think I have watched a single match in the way ever but I The image I get is one of those moves that he did That I used That's that on TV

That's Mr. Nanny That's Mr. Nanny to you Mr. Cruz is a guy Mr. Nanny, yes, illustrious Hollywood career of Hulk Coven Oh yeah That's he's known for it for that for me You know that's why I know him

Yes let's not forget The Critically Acclaimed No Holds Bard. I can't believe he didn't win best actor awards for his performance in Suburban Commando. And Emmy should have been awarded for his role in Thunder in Paradise, which is actually a show that I watched weekly after WCW Saturday night back in the day. But yeah, what a run for the whole extra. Movie legend. Yeah, movie legend, wrestling icon, complicated past, but RIP to the immortal Hulk Hogan, who passed away at the age of 71. So hard to transition from that, but let us gentlemen put a bow on UFC 318.

It went down this past Saturday in New Orleans. It was a emotional roller coaster ride of an event, but it was all about Dustin Porre, his career, what he gave to the sport. mixed martial arts and his final fight. And unfortunately, it was not a fairy tale ending for Dustin Porrier. He loses a decision to Max Holloway in the main event in front of his home crowd for the BMF title. And then officially lays down the gloves in the center of the cage. So Guillermo, let us begin with you. Your reaction to how the UFC handled this final fight for Dustin Porreier and what it meant in the overall landscape of MMA retirements. The UFC in Naples job.

It was an incredible job of how do you shoot a legend walking away from the sport. We have seen so many fighters just fade away and not get the recognition that they deserve, not get this parade, this distribute. with why they're still there in the UFC. Getting a fight that makes sense, not being thrown to the wolves against nobody, you know, to serve as a stepping stone. So he was glad to see, he doesn't get that.

It was very emotional all week. And it was the right fight. And I think he walks away as the BMF. He doesn't need the belt to be a BMF. He's an incredible fighter. He's a legend. his fight everyone, beating most of them.

It was nice to see the UFC finally do a good job. Something they should have done to a lot of other fighters that had walked away before him. But at least he doesn't got his chance to walk away, to feel that as a fighter

and not just like watch on the big screen and highlights six months away after he retreaters losing to to a 20-year-old lightweight. So it was good to see as after you see and has off to death to destiny for a legendary career. We'll dive into some of his career moments and his legacy in a moment, but AK, just reflecting back five days ago and even beyond that, just what this card meant, how it was built up and all that, your reaction to how the UFC handled this retirement and how it stacks up against other MMA retirements.

I hope going forward this becomes, if not a regular thing, at least a normal thing when people deserve it. This past weekend, you know, when we were sort of a talk about the event afterwards, even before, I think we kind of call Porre one of like the four horsemen of the UFC's lightweight, like, thriller division. You know what I mean? He's inextricably tied, of course, with Max Holloway, the man who just defeated him in this final fight, and Justin Gathe and Charles Oliver. Those guys have all fought each other. They've all done spin on countless main cars, pay-per-view cars, championship fights,

and they have 9,000 post-fight bonuses between them. Like, when you think of the UFC over the past, like, 15 years or so, it's hard not to picture Porre's face. It's hard not to picture Gatesy's face in Charles Oliver and Max Holloway. So for guys like this, like I hope the UFC gets a little more, is a little more willing to headline shows with these kinds of special attractions. Now, I know that this was still technically a title fight. Like the UFC can still say, hey, we almost always have title fights at the top.

There was the BMF belt on the line. But it's so silly. It didn't need it. It makes no difference. I can't imagine even to their bottom line that there's more than 50 people who, like, said, yeah, I've got, oh, the BMF titles on that line. I've got to get this now. I wasn't interested in just Holloway versus Porriere. Sorry, guys, am I coming in a little choppy?

We can hear you fine. darn it. Do we lose them all together? Yeah. Are you with this? Hello? I think we're all, I think we're all a little choppy right now,

but I can hear you. Okay, you were the only one that's choppy. You were the only one. Everyone else is wonderful. It is, it is me. You know? I think it's you. It's fine.

You're literally, you're chaffing. Oh, it's just me physically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not an internet issue. Yeah, I know. Okay, sorry. I will try and sum up what I was saying. I was sure I got broken up.

But yeah, I'm hoping the UFC going forward makes this more common. Like, do it for Charles Olivaire in the future. Do it for Max Hall. I mean, you got to do it for Max Holloway Sunday. Do it for Justin Gagey someday. Gage himself has admitted, like, I know I'm not viewed with the same, like, loving, you know, the same loving eyes that fans have for Porier, but that's okay. He's still such an important part of this era.

And I want the UFC to get away from saying, like, oh, we have to have title flights at the top. Because, yes, the BMF title was on the line at UFC 318. nobody cared. It didn't make a difference to the quality of the car, the quality of the fight, the pay-per-view buys, I'm sure, it didn't make a difference. No one was seeing, oh, now the BMF titles on the line. I definitely got to buy it. It was about the Porre story line. It was about his route with Max Holloway.

I'm trying to think of the last time the UFC had a non-title fight in the main event. It must have been Colby and Jorge will be my guess. I can't remember if there's been one since. And that's okay. Like, that's okay. Sorry, guys. Sorry, guys. Sorry, guys.

Sorry, guys. All right. I don't know what's going on. We always say the UFC is playing with house money, right? So I don't know why they're so insistent on, oh, we have to have one or two title fights at the top of every card. I just think it's so crazy. Like, you have the power now where you can have pay-per-views that are just headlined by stars. Established stars like Pori and Holloway. And more importantly, that will sell out the arena. Isn't that what you're trying to do, guys? Is it sell out arenas? Of course, you have pay-per-view and all that. but we know how rock saw their TV deal is. So selling out arenas is still the most important thing.

And if you had an event, a pay-per-view headline by Justin Gacy's retirement fight in Colorado, you'll sell out. It'll sell out. So, yes, as much I want to talk about Pore's legacy and how great it was, and we've kind of did a lot of that last week. Looking ahead, I hope this was proof of concept for the UFC, that you can have these amazing, amazing moments if you just put a bit of effort into it. Because the video package they did was awesome.

The fight was great. And even him losing, it doesn't matter. If anything, it was kind of a nice way for him to go out, to go out essentially on his shield. I know he didn't get KO'd. But, you know, to pass the torches that were to one of his contemporaries who probably has three or four years left in the business himself. I don't know.

I mean, Max is relatively young. So good job by the UFC. Keep it up. That's my takeaway of USC 13. Please keep it up. We can see. Let's give us more of that. I love it.

And one of my biggest takeaways of all of this is if we're going to do retirement tour fights. I feel like 98% of them come from the lightweight division, which is always a great time. Yeah. Like, you could do it for Max. You could do it for Olivera. You could do it for Gaichi if you wanted to.

There's just so many ways you could go about this. And so I wanted to ask. Yeah, please. We may miss ventilate as well. Oh, yeah. Of course. Of course. The Meyer Buena Silver Retirement fight will absolutely be the main event of UFC 329 sometime in 2026.

But, AK, kind of going back to. what the card meant and the significance of it. What is Dustin Porre's legacy, A.K., like 10, 15, 20 years from now when somebody asks you, hey, grandpa, A.K., tell me about Dustin Porier and what he meant to mix martial arts.

What will you say? One of the most exciting and most resilient fighters of his era. I mean, that would be my one sentence if I had to sum it up. He's a guy who, like, you need guys like him. Right? We love the dominant champions,

Habib and the John... and John Jones and, you know, Connor McGregor who he's going up. We love, we love Alex Padeta, his recent run. We love that aura of invincibility, right? We love those guys who are like, oh, every time they go in there, they're just going to beat whatever. I was going to say something bad out of their opponents. Andrew the Silver during his prime was invincible.

You need those guys too, of course. Those are your stars. George St. Pierre. You need your stars. But we have guys who are the backman of the company who were like maybe just a little more relatable because who among us has not been knocked down, has not always had the best day at work.

has not always felt like we are moving forward, you know, has suffered tough losses, whatever that may be, whether he be personal, professional. And that is the story of Dustin Porre, because, yeah, look, he fell short of becoming undisputed champion several times. He won the interim title. It was a great moment, paid in full, as he loves to say. But there was no point where we would say, well, Dustin Porre was the number one lightweight in the world.

You could argue there's a point he maybe wasn't even number two. Like maybe he peaked at being the number three best guy in the world. But there's no shame in that. I have said for years that belts are props. And that includes the interim title he won, right? Even the interim title won. It was a prop that meant something to him and meant something to his fans. It meant something to a lot of people.

And that's the case with titles in general. But titles should not be the end-all, be-all of a fighter's legacy. If Foray had never won the interim title, would it diminish his contributions to the business that much? I think that's crazy. I think we all have eyeballs, guys. we all saw these classic fights. We saw the fight with Korean zombie. We saw the two fights with Porrier.

We saw the fight with Eddie Alvarez. Sorry, I just engaged you. I said, Porrior before. We saw the fight with Anthony Pedis. We've seen all these amazing moments. Nothing takes these moments away because, oh, but when you add it all up, was he the top five guy? Did he ever win? It doesn't matter, guys.

What matters is the moments, these individual moments that he had. Sorry, I know I'm breaking up a little bit again. I'm going to pause here. We can hear, okay, hey. I don't know what's going on with my intro today. What's happening right now? Sorry, guys. This is such a huge fail on my part.

Okay. Gee, what about, it's okay. Guillermo, what, what, go ahead, you, buddy? What's, if someone at, you know, your young child comes up to you and becomes a huge fan of M.M.A. and wants to learn about Dustin Porier, Gee.

What do you, what are you telling them? I would say that Dustin, Yeah, I'm just joking. I'm not A.K., I have good internet. Too soon. Too soon, Guy. Too soon. Sorry, A.K., I love you.

I mean, Dessing is one of those fighters that, like, like A.K. said, he doesn't have belts. He doesn't, he just pure action. You're going to tune in to watch him regardless of who he's fighting, of where he's fighting. He could be, like, doing the prelims. of UFC Uberlandia, UFC Saskatoon, or whatever that is, you are always going to watch because, you know, he's going to deliver his. And on top of everything, of all his abilities that a fighter as an athlete,

of the human being he is. We are used to see a lot of douchebags fighting in MMA. And the ones like Dussing, one of the nice guys. So it's good to, it was always. good to have him around as a role model for fathers, for fans, especially young ones. So it's a fun story because my wife doesn't really watch that much anymore. She used to hang out with me to watch the UFC when I was started working. And she only followed one fighter ever on Instagram.

It was Dustin because of his social work and all that. So she became a fan of him. And I think a lot of people became fans of him because of the fighter he is and also on top of it, I think for the human being that he is. So he's going to be missed. I'm sure he's going to be around of the sport forever. But he'll be missed as a fighter getting the cage and entertaining us as he did for so many years.

And now, Guy, on the flip side, Max Holley. has now won two straight at 155 pounds. Of course, he has one of the most memorable knockouts in the history of the sport against Justin Gagee. And then this went over Dustin Porre. He's now the first man to defend the BMF title successfully. Just making history all the way around, Guy. After watching this fight and performance,

what is Max Holloway's ceiling at 155 pounds? And what should be next for him? I mean, it's possible to say that he can beat, I mean, he's incredible. His fight was sad to watch him getting knocked out by Topuria, but he was fighting at 1.45, and he clearly has no business when there anymore at his age, doing that cut. And his cut to 155 is already looking miserable.

So I think he should just stay a lightweight. And I think if Dipsi gives him a title shot, he can win the belt. And it wouldn't be insane to get him that fight. I don't think UFC is going to do that because Paddy is out there and it's a big money fight for the Pudia to win and become such a bigger star. But I think Max is going to fight for the title next year. I think the UFC is probably going to give him Charles Zedavira. He's going to win and he's going to fight for the title next year.

And maybe win. This man is incredible. I'm never doubting Mark's Holloway. ever. And the way he's fighting now, a lightweight especially, it's, it's incredible. It's insane to watch.

AK, are you as high here on the ceiling of Max Holloway at 155? Potential champion, the guy who could be champ sometime next year. Can you see that as well? I mean, could be champ. I just don't know if I pick him to be Deporia,

but to get that fight, oh yeah. It feels like we're really heading in that direction, especially if it goes, as we've been discussing, like, it feels right that we should finally get the proper matchup with Charles Oliva. And if it beats Charles,

I don't see how who would complain about him getting another shot of Ilya. I think if you gave him Elia of right now, like if you made him Ilya's first lightweight title defense, you'd get a lot of pushback. Even as good as he looked at 318, and as much as we enjoyed that whole show, you'd get some pushback.

You'd get some pushback. Max is universally beloved. Like, no one would blame him, but you'd have some people questioning the UFC. Like, gosh, is this really the right moment? Like, even people who, like, obviously love Max Holloway more than Patty Pimblit, there's a lot more intriguing that Patty Pimlet fight right now, isn't there? Like, don't you have to do that first?

You know, UC doesn't have to do anything? But doesn't it feel like that makes so much more sense? So, Max is in a great position here. There's a lot of big fights for him ahead at 155. I totally agree that not that he looks like a different fighter, but for someone who's done everything you can do at featherweight and has made that weight cut so many times. And I don't think it was ever easy for him.

it does feel like a fresh start a fresh start for a final run for a guy who is 33 years old will be 34 by the end of the year and is a bit older in fight years but this is the right way to do it like this is the right way to go we sometimes see people go the opposite way

and go to a lower weight class and that could work for them but for max I think 155 we've been talking about this for some time and yes I will actually be surprised if he is not fighting for the undisputed title. Maybe not in 2026, but I will say, if he doesn't get a crack at that undisputed lightweight title before the end of his career,

or within the next two years, maybe a little narrowed down a bit, I will be surprised at this point. He's got the momentum and he still has the skills. Yeah, I mean, there's lots of ways we can go with this. Lightway rocks, and worst case scenario, guys, we have two lightweights defending titles. Like, it just, it doesn't get better than this.

You get Ilya defending one, Max defending the other. Lightweight's the best division in the sport. And if we're going to have more lightweight five rounders, it's never a bad thing. So let's move on from the best division in the sport, arguably to a couple of the worst. But some big announcements nonetheless. The point for round number one goes to, it goes to ghee. I mean, better internet quality is always going to win.

Yes. What happened? What did I miss? What did I miss? Not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't here for a lot of this discussion, but I must have been good, I guess. I missed quite a bit of it. You did.

When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

Ooh, European chocolate. For the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. But guys, UFC 318 is officially in the past and a couple days removed from the event. Dana White hops on Instagram and announces some big pieces for the future, some big pieces for the month of October. And we're going to start with UFC 320 October 4th, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.

Vegas, Nevada. The main event is the rematch for the light heavyweight title, Maghamed Ancolaev versus the former two division champion Alex Pereira, same arena, same city as their fight in March. Co-made event, Marabda Welsh really defending the Bannibway title gets Corey Sanhagan, plus we get Yuri Prakashka versus Cleo Roundtree. A.K., how are we rating the top three fights of UFC 320? I mean, at least like nine out of ten. I'd like, I'd like, I love these fights. I love these fights. We were saying, like, this kind of actually helps us put a little bit of a bow on our UFC 318 discussion

because a lot of it was not like, is UFC 318 a great card? It was is UFC 318 the main card worth $80? That was like kind of more, the more relevant discussion. And I think even afterwards, we said we still kind of not, even the card turned out fine, especially if you're on a budget. If you're only buying half of the UFC pay reviews every year, that one probably didn't make the cut. now we look at the 320, I think this is why. I think you see cars like 320.

321 is still building. I know we'll talk about that later, but you got two title flights on 320. You have an awesome matchup that we weren't sure we were going to get with Prohashka and Roundtree. We all wanted it, but we're like, is this like, are they going to book this? Boom, you lay that one down. That's such an amazing fight. Again, if you weren't necessarily having to sell the casuals, like for me, for Hachka Roundtree is almost like worthy of a pay-view main, but maybe I've diluted the meaning of paperview main quite a bit.

That's a great fight. Then you get to Corey Sanhagan finally getting his shot. He's the last remaining guy that Morav has to go through, right? People can poke holes in Corey's resume, and certainly he has fallen short against some of the best fighters. I understand, but he's looked great. I think few would argue that he has been in there, like competitive with like the Peodor Yan's, with the Umar and Omega Medov. So, yeah, he didn't beat them.

But it always felt like he was going to get his shot. And now it's time. The numbers game has worked out for him. The timing's worked out for him. I think he's a plucky underdog. I haven't seen the odds yet. I'm sure they came out. I'm sure they've already come out,

and I'm sure they're not in Corey's favor. But I'm really excited with that fight. And then Ancolaia Pereira 2, okay, mileage may vary. Maybe after that first fight, people weren't exactly clamoring for a rematch. Considering everything Alex Bedet has done, I think, and how rematch has been handed out to less deserving champions in the past, it would have been very surprising if Poetan had not let the U.C know that he was open to it and they didn't give it to him.

So that's pretty much what's happened here. You've got ourselves a very worthy headliner. And I would think one of the six or seven paper views that people would plan to buy in 2025. Guy, AK, very, very high on these top three fights. What say you? We got Anklea Pereira. We got Marab versus Sanhagan. We got Yeri versus Khalil, some other fights.

The MVP of our fantasy league, soon to be, Atta-Bagh, Gautier, is back on that card against Ozzy Diaz. there's just a lot to like Gary. Yes. We got Macy against Yanna Santos. I hope the UFC puts that on main card because it's incredible. Women's battle is striving. But yeah, I'm high on this card as well. It's the Poitin and Kalev rematch.

It's not one people who are dying to see because the first fight wasn't that good. but the trash talk, especially all the tweets from, I'm sure, and Collette tweeting at Pereira got us interested in this fight. Of course, we are curious to see how Perea does. He didn't give away any excuses for his performance, but it really sounded like something was off. in the end it could turn out another 25 boring fight and Mirab and Cody is an incredible matchup

that maybe could be like not that great a lot of takedowns and all that for the fans that like to see just stellar brawes but yeah Calil and Pro Hasca is going to be incredible and there's no denying that just jinxed maybe But yeah, it's 8.5 out of 10, I would give. I would just below AK, but yeah, I'm we looking for it for this one.

Am I, am I in the minority of people who, like, enjoyed the first Ancalae Pallaya-Pedata fight? I'll never watch it again. I'll never watch it again, don't get you wrong. That's not coming on at the Lee household anytime soon. But I, like, in the moment, was pretty engaged with the fight. I guess it's easy to say, because. A lot of us were still, like, even in the fourth and fifth round, we're kind of like, oh, here he comes.

Here he comes. He's going to land something. And he just never did. But to me, that was, like, fascinating to watch. That doesn't make a fire good one. Good may have been the wrong word. This is true. Well, I didn't say good.

I didn't say good. I enjoyed it. But I also enjoy, I've also been enjoying the career of Torres-Fini. So. Have you enjoyed in Gras or in their close? Did you enjoy that? That's like one of my top five most enjoy. I enjoyed that.

Ben Askeran and Damien Maya was a classic. I'm a sick man. Okay? We know this. I'm a sicko. So I have a scoengue and Liz Carmouche. I bet you love that too. I have a skewed perspective of what is in droll.

But what I mean is like I really want to see them fight again because I did think like I really thought Anka Live did a fantastic job in the fight. I just don't think he gets enough credit for how he defused Padetta and not in the way people expected. I think a lot of people thought, oh, he'll take him down. That's how he'll beat him. But I've told people if you can. bear it and to watch

the fight again and watch like Ankelyos' footwork and his distance control and all that stuff. Like, it's, I found it very engaging. Again, I probably would not watch the fight again. I certainly wouldn't tell someone who's not an MA fan to watch the fight. But I enjoyed it enough that I did want to see it one

more time, even if it turns out the same way. I'm a sicko. And I'm not say it was a bad performance by Ancalat. Far from that. It was a great performance. It was an incredible game panel. But it wasn't just just wasn't a good fight. It happens.

He won. It has off to him, but it wasn't a fun fight. And I know that. The fact that you wouldn't watch that, he wouldn't recommend it to anyone that says that the fight isn't good. It was intriguing, I say, but it wasn't good at a fight. And unfortunately, Angolive's already been painted with the Dana White. This guy's not fun brush.

He got painted with that after the Anbovovich fight, which is far more thrilling than this Pereira fighter for being honest. It was a lot more intriguing. There were some different swings to it. But here's what makes this fight kind of interesting, Guy, is what it means for both guys. Because obviously the belt is on the line. But I'm curious, in your opinion, Guy, what else is at stake here for these guys? Because Pereira could go to 0 for 2 against Ancolaev.

That could be very tough scenes, no matter how popular he is. Ankylaif is the champ. He's probably the best 205 are in the world. But it doesn't seem like he's the most popular fighter to the UFC brass. and certainly to a lot of the fan base because of the way Dana has sort of portrayed him as a not exciting fighter. So he could be in that position that like

Marab was in a while ago or Balaw was in a while ago before he had that thrilling fight with JDM where hey, if he loses, he might not get another shot. They might just move on real quick. So what else is at stake for these two fighters, in your opinion, besides the gold? There's a lot of stakes at stake. I think even Kalad

loses, I think he's screwed because the UFC waited forever to finally give him a shot and when they did, it sucked against Blahovitz. And then again, he had to fight a lot of fights to get his chance.

And then he won, but he's not a big star. He's not a flashed style and all that. So if he loses, he's going to have to win like, I would say, like five in a row, but this division is so shallow that maybe two or three wins get him back there. And I don't think Alex Perez is going to be there when Uncleav does this turnaround.

Because win or lose, I think this is the last fight for Alex Pereira and light heavyweight. I think he's going to move up to headweight. We'll not lose. If he wins, he's going to move up straight for a title fight. At least he's going to try that. but if he loses, he's moving up as well like he did from when he lost to the other side and he moved up to fight

Blahovitz, was his lightweight debut, and then went for the title, so I think he's going to do the same. He's always posting, always giving those hints on social media, showing how big he is, how heavy he is, and I think he's going to go for a third title. And seeing the heavyweight division,

we're getting more clarity now. We're going to talk about it later, but if Alex Federger goes to heavyweight, he's maybe a win-of-way for a title shot, if not straight fighting for the title. So win or lose, I think this is less fight at that heavyweight. You probably could have got the fight anyways against Aspedal if you truly wanted it.

But AK then it's not the direction of prayer is gone. He's going. back to rematch one of your favorite fights of all time. So what is at stake for these two gentlemen outside of that gold shiny belt? If Angola Live gets past Panetta again, he could go on a pretty long run at Light Heavyweight. I know that's not what a lot of fans want to hear, certainly how what Dana White wants to hear. He's only 33, which in the current state of the Light Heavyweight Division is like 28. He's essentially in the prime of his career at Light Heavyweight.

I mean, it's not a strong division right now. Like picture a scenario where he beats Pereira. He goes on to beat Yuri or Khalil in his next tail defense. And then say there's a Carlos Olberg in there. Let's say there's a Mike, we all want this, Dominic Reyes, Dominic Reyes, teledefense. Unless Anglive also falls into this trap of, oh, I really want to become a two division champion, which is entirely possible. I could see him getting like two tell defenses and then saying, oh, I'm going up to heavyweight now, which would.

No, again, no one would care. I'm picturing, like, writing the headline for MAAfighting.com right now and just the traffic just plummeting. And just the end of the UFC. God. But if he stays at two-division champion. There's, like, a very realistic scenario where he stays at 205 for another two years and rattles off like five or six straight title defenses. And, like, imagine that. And we'll have to begrudgingly acknowledge him as one of like the four greatest light heavyweights of all the time.

I know people won't do it. And I'd be like, no, I refuse. Like, you know, we're keeping him behind Chuck and Tito and John Jones. And like, we'll find, we'll find, Shogun Hua. We'll find names to put above Megaman and Kallaya. But statistically, you'll be able to say like, oh, no, well, you know, he's got more tile defenses than Ashokun Hua. He's got more tall defenses than a Machita than a Rampage Jackson.

Like, it sounds horrible saying it. I can't imagine anyone who's been a fan of M.A., like since the 2000s ever putting Angoliath above names like that, Rampage and Shogun. but if he gets five or six straight talent defense, this is possible, and it starts at 320. Like, he really has to, I really feel like Panetta is one of his biggest challenges.

Maybe I'm disrespecting Ulberg. You're depressing me, A.K. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to everyone watching right now. Maybe the Dominic Reyes magical run ends with him, Vidiank alive, like how great would that be? But I don't think most people are betting on this. We got Mursa Kanov, comment up as well.

Maybe Mursa Kana was the one who will save us. I don't know. But you guys all know, I'm right. Like, he could. If he focused, just stays focus on division, and two title defenses a year, we could be talking about him, five or six straight,

light heavyweight tail defenses, which is very uncommon at this division. It's just, I think it's John Jones and Chuck. Maybe Tito also had five, I don't remember. So you'd have to put anky life among that list, and that sounds bizarre,

but that is, what does it stick? A.K. Moraa Walsh, Willie, has been saying, hey, I want to be active, as active as possible. I want to fight four times this year,

and he's on his way. This would be his third title defense at 20, 25 would be his fourth title fight in 13 months. And at, band of weight, which is absolutely insane. This man is just doing it. And on the other hand, there's Corey Sandhagen, who is just so damn good, but he's been the best man and not the groom, always the bridesmaid, but never the bride.

What does this fight mean for both guys? And what if Corey Sanhagen does what a lot of people think he can't do? I mean, you saw his skit he just put out today. Marab is just really good. There's no disrespect to Corey Sanhagan, but what if Sanhagen goes out there and beats Marab on October 4th, AK? What does that mean for 135? I mean, be freaking great for my fancy team.

I used a late pick on Corey. I took a flyer on Corey, man. I mean, I needed some of my 135 spot. And I said, screw it's one guy who I'm pretty sure is going to have a title fight coming up. And now it's official. Now we have it. Well deserved, as I said earlier, like I think I, listen, we know how good Marab is. We know how Marab fights.

We know how he wins. We know how he wins fights. And he could totally do to Corey what he's done to so many others. But there is something about Corey's style, which I think is intriguing, right? I think people know him of the people that have sort of had to go up against Marab. I think people would view Corey as maybe the biggest risk taker as sort of the most aggressive as a guy who always goes for the finish. I know that's a cliche. I know every fighter says that.

I think Corey Sanhagan actually is that guy. How effective will that be against Marab, especially once we get to the third and fourth rounds? I don't know. I don't know. but he could be the one to just totally wear Corey down and beat him that way. But I'm excited for it, man. And I think there's a great storyline here. Again, not to keep bringing back to 318, but I guess we're still kind of high off it.

Like these storylines are what make us really tune in and really lock in on these fights. And there is something here with Corey. I think him being an underdog is so compelling. I think him having taken so long to finally get that tell shot, well, obviously not ideal for him. just makes it that much more meaningful when we finally see him standing across the cage from Maraup, fingers crossed, let's hope that nothing happens to either guy.

Now, should he win, would Marov get an immediate rematch? I think he would, yes. I think they have enough, even though I know Marav is not the most popular champion, I think he's certainly done enough. Long, losing streak, multiple title defenses,

I think you have to give him the rematch. Would he still stand by his word of wanting to, like, fight as often as possible? possible and fight however what two more times this year. I think he would want to. I want to believe Marab's team would kind of tell him we need to stick a step back. Like the only reason you lost or like, you know, I don't know if it's true, but you tell him. The only reason you lost is you've overworked yourself.

Let's wait until 2026. Let's headline. Let's look for January, February, March. Let's headline one of those cards with you going back after court. So I do think it would disrupt Maraub's plans to stay as active as he wants to be. But I could be wrong. But it could be wrong. So yeah, definitely meaningful.

stakes for both fighters beyond just, of course, Corey finishing the story, as it were. We have this conversation about fighters, especially champions, who just fight so often, and perhaps it affected a guy like Israel Adasania who was fighting so often. And Alexander Volcanowski eventually because he was fighting so often. Does this same sort of thing count for a guy like Marab, who is not a human being in a lot of respects? And then your thoughts on this fight with Sandhagen because I love this fight so much and I think if there's anybody in this division

who can beat Marab right now and I'm not picking Corey to win but I think Corey might have the best chance to do it. Gee. You're muted. Sorry. You better drop the promo my neighbor's dog.

My neighbor's dog started barking so I muted and had some forgot. Sorry, sorry. Sorry, Kay. We also have problems here. so as I was saying and no one was listening Merab is not human

so that doesn't apply it to him when I was Perreira fights every two weeks basically I mean his fighting style and his division

is getting tagged like that it pays a price Merab is not human and his cardio like it really looks like he could fight every month if he wants to

and I think this fight the most interesting aspect for me in this fight is Corey is a great fighter. It's a great challenger, way better than Sean O'Malley. He should have been him against Mirab instead of Sean Almale, but business. But this fight is about

solidifying Mirab as the Banterway Goat. If you don't see him or him already in that position, I mean, this wing could could get him that because he's basically

cleaning the division already this is a great challenger for him after him who's next I don't think he's going to fight again this year because you don't have anyone there and that's okay this clear contender

to challenge for the for the Bettaway title there's no one right now so this fight is gonna put him in that position that conversation even stronger than already as the

bent away gold and let him just enjoy his time off I'm sure he's going to do a lot of stupid shit on social media but let him just enjoy but again there's not a win

an easy win for him gold is a tricky opponent but my early prediction is but I was going to just control him and dominate him for five rounds to win a decision.

But it's a really intriguing matchup. Definitely is looking forward to this fight. That's one pay-per-view in October, and then three weeks later, we're getting another one. And we'll talk about the main event for that fight in a matter of seconds, but the point for round two goes to A.K.

One-to-one. Nicely down. Boo! Boo! You're muted key. What was that? You're muted key. What was that?

Well, Guy, let's see if you can get a little bit of a head start here because Dana White also announced the main event for UFC 321, October 25th, Eddie Hadarina, Abu Dhabi. It is for the heavyweight championship of the world, no longer the interim heavyweight champion, but the true undisputed UFC heavyweight champ, Tommy Aspinall, is back. His first fight in well over a year. we were wondering who he had defend his title against. Would it be Alex Pereira? Would it be Derek Lewis? Would it be Cyril Ghan coming off of a super controversial win in his most recent fight? They land on Cyril Ghan.

You're shaking your head. And that leads to me to my question, Guy. Did the UFC get this one correct? Is this the right fight for Tom Aspinall's return? No. No. I'm just glad he's fighting. It's good to see Tom Aspin back.

if he put him against like a random people in the street like five in a row, it would be better than Cyrilgun, sorry. Sirrigans. And it's not an easy win. Doesn't mean like he's going to just still roll him.

He's going to just destroy him. He could do that, of course. But I'm not expecting this to be an easy fight. And I'm not saying Sirrigan can't win this fight. But no one wants this fight. No one who doesn't say, Bonjour doesn't satisfy.

It doesn't make any sense. When Sir Gun fought for the last time, he fought against Volkov, and he won a decision, and when Volkov left the Octagon, Dana White was pissed and saying he was going to make up for Volkov for getting robbed.

And what did he do? He puts Volkov against Jai Tomeda and gives Gun a title shot. That doesn't make any sense. It's insane. same. But yeah. At least it's funny. But again, it's

not the right fight. It's... I just wish the UFC would give him Derek Luce already. Fuck it. Give him Volkov. Almeda. Anyone but gun. Sorry. It doesn't make any sense. I'm sure this Netflix

show that gun has been shooting the past, like, year or so. This guy won a lot of awards. going to be incredible, like billions of people are going to watch that and then decide to buy the pay-the-view to watch serial fight Tom Icemen. That's the only explanation because it makes no sense at all. This fight, and again, this fight in a vacuum is incredible.

I want to watch this fight because the styles and as a match-up, it's fun. It's going to be interesting. But again, it doesn't make any sense. Sorry. A.K. Gie loves this fight. Absolutely loves it. You could hear it in his voice. He's putting it over.

Yes. Big time. Obviously, this is kind of the expected outcome. I fought for Derek Lewis. I thought that was just the more fun option. And I think it still is the more fun option. But, you know, Cyril Gaon has won an interim belt. He's fought for the belt.

This would not be his third opportunity to become undisputed champion. Was this the right fight? Does it even matter? because Tom's back. Yeah, it's a right fight by default. I hate to say it because I've certainly been pushing the Jelton train for a while. I guess that loss to Curtis Blades being held against him, which understandably so. I could see people seeing that Curtis Blades fight and being like, yeah, Jelton's not ready yet, man.

I can't imagine why people watch the Gone Volkov fight and said, gone is the guy, but it is a W. It is W against a guy who was on a win streak. Let's not forget that. I know Gahn's not like a big hot streak himself. He stopped a win streak, which, you know, there's just some sort of transitive property there. At least that's how I guess the UFC would frame it, right? And if you're trying to justify this fight to yourself as a fan, maybe that's like the most palpable way to look at it.

So it's it is just the numbers game, guys. We keep saying the UFC does not build events around fighters. They build events around their schedule and around what locations they have booked. So Asperal has been more than ready to fight. You have to get them. in there. I don't know how much longer they could have waited. There would have just been, you know, the presumably Madis Square Garden card in November and then their year-end card in December. That's it. Those were their only options.

And if you're Aspinol, you're sitting around doing nothing. Clearly ready to fight now. C-Dagan, obviously, not going to say no to a title shot. And they have been, there's some heat there, you know, not like a lot of trash talk, but a lot of back-and-forth callouts. One guy saying, well, I wanted the fight with him then. Now, he doesn't want it. And then when the other guy was like a higher position saying, well, oh, wow, well, now he doesn't want to fight, blah, blah, blah, blah. So there's some element of that. It's not like the most chart-busting dialogue, but it's there. It exists. Most importantly, we just want to get Big Tom back in there. You know, I think, again, heavyweight sucks, but he's a strong A-side, or I believe he can be

a strong A-side. Can he be a huge, you know, crossover star? I don't know. I don't think that really matters for the UFC right now. I think you want to have your best, most exciting fighters getting in there as often as they can and strutting their stuff. And Tom is a really exciting fighter guys. Like, I think what's lost in all this talk, the stupidest talk with him and John Jones, like, oh, who's really the best, who's really the best? Like, Tom just super fun to watch when he gets in there. He's a fast

finisher. He's everything the UFC looks for in a heavyweight outside of, again, maybe being a better sound, but I don't know, though I think he's a really compelling interview, I guess, but he doesn't have, like, very famous quotes. There you go. Doesn't have memes. Okay, fine, whatever. But he's a strong at his size.

So you've got to give him bodies. In this case, God is the body. Could have been shot to It would have been weird if they picked Volkov, but you could have done that too. It wouldn't have mattered to run it back, I guess, you know, unanswered question from their first fight, I guess. Pavlovich, another rematch. Curtis Blaze, trilogy bout. It just wasn't a lot of fresh options. So they went with a guy that he hasn't fought before who, again, they've been talking about fight each other for a while, Cibald.

So I agree with Gee. There's certainly other names I would have wanted to see in there. But does it make sense? I think by the textbook definition of booking a fight for Tom Aspenol right now, Yeah, yeah, it makes perfect sense. I did like Tom's reaction to it, just kind of laying out the times where they could have booked this fight. And Cyril said no for a variety of different reasons, at least from his perspective. And I just loved the end of the promo on Instagram.

He's like, this is the third time he's fighting for a belt. I'm going to get rid of this guy from the title picture forever. And I was like, that's just damn cold, man. So could get pretty heated up to Abu Dhabi. hopefully there's a very compelling supporting cast yes we have jelton al-maida versus alexander volkov perhaps you know october's a long way away i don't want to jinx any anything but something happens with cyril maybe the black beast does get a phone call maybe he's the backup fighter who the hell knows but uh that's ufc 321 obviously we shall see where it goes from here but we're at abu-dabby now the ufc is in abu-dabu right now

for a fight night card early day MMA we're going to talk quickly about UFC Abu Dhabi the point for round three goes to Giermei Cruz TBB let the confetti fly Yes

All right AK All the hate was worth it Yes absolutely AK UFC Abu Dhabi this Saturday nude eastern prelims 3 p.m. Eastern main card Headlined

by a big one at 185 pounds the former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whitaker taking on the former one championship champ RDR, as Jed likes to call him, Heinir de hitter, or in reality, Rainier de Ritter. RDR has been just on a, just been super fun, A.K., has been very, very fun since it's coming over to the UFC, and now he gets this big opportunity. And then we have the rest of the car. We did lose a huge fight between Mobs are of Lovloif and Aaron Pico, but still, I think this is going to be a fun day of fights. How are we liking UFC Abu Dhabi, AK, top to bottom? Banger, man, banger. This is how you put together a fight night card. I mean, this is the

definition of like, and one that we have said already is kind of top to bottom a little bit stronger than 318, a little bit stronger than the card we just saw, at least on paper. I'm not saying it'll turn out to have better fights because, again, we got at least a couple of great, great fights and two great fights and one really good fight, that one fight at the night at 318. I can't promise. That's what we'll have here in Abu Dhabi. Like, frankly, on paper, there are a couple of clunkers, like, as far as, like, how the, you know, how the action will play out. But I do think most of the matchups make sense, ranking-wise, from a competition standpoint. There are a couple of squash matches, which I think is always good to have.

I always feel cards should have that. We've got Shara and Mark Andre Bejillo, which I don't want to count out power bar, but he's in there for a reason, probably to get KOed by Shara. Asu Amabayev, who was supposed to fight Tamarov, which would be. been a very, very competitive fight now gets Jose Ochoa, who is a good fighter, is doing well. There's upset potential there. But, you know, Al-Biof has to have a bounce back performance here, and I think he'll look good against Ochoa. But yeah, the top two fights are great. Robert Whitaker and RDR, I think when they brought Derr over, you know, he has a ton of

credibility from his time in one, two-division champion. I don't know if they had signed him thinking, oh, this guy will be like on the short list for a title shot within like nine months. I don't know if that was their plan. But it has certainly worked out that way, and he's been very exciting. I know he took out their boy, Bo Nichols, someone they wanted to push a lot. But again, that was almost like a no-lose situation. Now you have a guy who is suddenly headlining a show for you, and he beats Robert Whitaker.

Whoa, you've got a middleweight title challenger. So this company is always falling upwards. And I think they've done a great job matchmaking for RDR so far. Again, whether they intend to push him or whether they intended to use him, you know, like as a stepping stone for Bo in that last fight. It doesn't matter. worked out great for them. And Robert Wardick is such a beloved fighter.

Speaking of title shots, we all kind of are holding out hope that he gets one more, because we still feel like he's at that level. He got run through by Hamzat, Hamz to force nature. It happens. Other than that, you put Robert in there with any top five guy, you still feel like he's getting even competitive. That Hamzaa fight was such an aberration.

Drickus also did really good against him, but again, Trichis is the number one middleweight in the world. right so no shame in that so great stuff there and uh what was i said peyote yon marcus mcgis beautiful stuff loving the peyote ryan resurgence marcus mcgis deserves a big fight i know he's not a household name uh i know most people most fans could not pick him out of a lineup but i mean you look at the work he's done since coming to the ufc he's just he's just winning fights man he's winning fights he's beating good competition uh i don't think he was expected to win his last fight and against jonathan martinez and guess what took care of business did the damn thing um

Dark Horse Title Challenger, man. If RDR is a Dark Horse Tidal Challenger, you better believe Marcus McGee is too. So great stuff on this card. Again, it looks like there's potential finishes. We can have divisional movement. We have actual contender implications. I don't know.

I don't know if Jed is going to do a Michoulin star rating for this card because of fight night. But this has to be like a two-star or at least. You know, if you happen to be hanging around Abu Dhabi, I feel like you'd go out of your way to be at the show. two stars huh okay right isn't that too isn't that what two stars means if you're in if you're two stars means you're like you're driving a few hours to this car yeah yeah oh absolutely one star is like hey if you're in the area you're might as well go i stand jett's on vacation so i stand by it

so i'm i'm co-opting his rating system for now and i'm saying this is a two star missulen rated restaurant slash card i just look this up gebe before we get your answer uh 12 fights is just a magical number, uh, compared to 14 like we got last week. Six of the 12 fights, he feature a betting favorite of minus 3.40 or more, uh,

according to our friends at Fanduel. Uh, there's some big, hefty favorites on this fight card. Uh, just like the Nashville one. Yeah. Piotr Yan minus 410.

Shara bullet minus 700. And then we get to the prelims and it's just like, uh, Buch is minus 310. Steven Winn, minus 370. Even Ebo is minus 265. DeMont Blackshare minus 340.

Carl Sliall minus 520. There's so many huge favorites on this card, but we do have a very compelling main event. We have Bryce Mitchell dropping to 135. There's some very interesting storylines here. Are you as high as AK on this? This is a two Michoulin star card for you? Yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one, especially because it's in the afternoon.

Oh, God, it's a better. It's way better. Because in Brazil, I'm two hours ahead. Right now in one hour ahead of Eastern time. So it always sucks because the events in like, I don't know, two or three in the morning. We have a kid at home. You're waking up at six, so you're not sleeping.

But in the afternoon, it's perfect. And I really look forward to a lot of fights in this car. Obviously, the main event. I'm really curious to see how Whitaker returns after. getting his jaw destroyed. I think that's a huge aspect in this fight because if it goes to the grappling exchanges with your getting your jaw destroyed like that

could be a huge factor depending on which positions that you are getting him. So that's something to watch. But yeah, there's a lot of interesting types of match in this fight. We have the debut of Marcus Boucher finally coming to the UFC.

I remember 10 years ago in UFC, I think was in San Paulo. He was just hanging around there saying that he was contemplating doing the transition from Jiu jitsu to MMA and maybe one day fighting the UFC. It took him

a long time. He changed his mind a lot of times since then. But then he went to one in a championship He didn't end well dealt for him for a lot of reasons. And now he's filing in the UFC. Marching Budet is not an easy fight. He could easily go there and lose a split decision and this fight sucks. But I have high hopes for Bushesha.

The only time he lost was against heavy goat, Hugh, in one. So there's no diminishing that. like Carlos Leyal against Mushing Saldikov is going to be insane. It's going to be a fun fight. So there's a lot of things there's a lot to watch on

this card. But yeah, Bouchesha's debut and Wyrich's return are on the top of the list and Mugie on this Joshua Van like rise in the UFC it's like the Joshua Van of

the the Bento-A vision. It's incredible. And he could in a title shot this weekend. So it's there's a lot of stake in this event. I mean, look, I love the I love the putting over of

Marcus McGee here. So he's got a tough, he's got a tough task at hand here. Peter Yan, a lot riding on this fight. He told me if he wins, he ain't fighting again unless it's for the belt. He wants the winner of Marab and Corey. And he will wait as long as it

takes to get that fight. So definitely, some stakes there. I don't know, Marcus Begui will have the same sort of opportunities if he wins this fight. And I don't think McGee's going to win. I pick him Peter Young. And I think it's insane. The odds are insane. Like,

minus 410. Yon is the favorite. It's insane. He's fighting Peter Young. Come on. He could win, of course, but I mean, that's a good chance to make some money there. Yeah, Jan is a very good fighter. And Looking forward to that. Banimay is a great division and UFC Abu Dhabi will be fun.

The point for round four goes to my best friend, Alexander K. Lee, 2, 2. That means it's time for the knockout row. One question to decide at all. The peeps will be the decision makers. They will be the judge and the jury here. And AK, you get to decide here. Do you want to go first or do you want to go last? But before you make that decision,

Guy, I have two questions here. Yes. One is behind door number one. One is behind door number two. So you pick which door we're going with, and then AK can decide if he's going first or last. Two. Okay.

AK, you want to go first or second? I'm not telling you what it is until it's time. Do I want to go first, or do I want to go first? Mike, obviously I'm going first. Let's do this. Love it. By the way, door number one was, is PFL in a good place right now after UFC, uh, PFL Africa, excuse me.

Uh, but that's not our going because a man that has been in the news and in many headlines this week is the brand new UFC lightweight champion Ilya to Poria. He has had things to say about just been talking a lot, whether it's on social media after Max Holloway beat Dustin Porreier doing a several hour kick stream with the Nell folks, talking about all sorts of different stuff. Even saying, A.K., I will not fight Armand Sarukin. In fact, if they offer me Arm and Sarucan, I would rather vacate the title than fight him. So lots of things that has been said from Ilya Tuporia.

So, A.K., Iliate Tupori has been champion for less than a month now. We're approaching one month since being champion. I want you to give a grade to Ilya's first few weeks as UFC Lighten lightweight champion. One minute on the clock. Go. Man, I don't know if I can go higher than like a firm B because love the dialogue, love how he was doing this before he won the title. I don't know how he does it. He's having like five press conferences a week. I know he has his own promotion and he talks during that promotion as well. So I get it. We're getting a lot of Tupori. We get in the full court

press Tuporia. And in some ways, that's great. Like I don't mind the court. I might not agree, but I like that, oh, I don't trust that Sirrukin's going to show up, so I don't want to fight him. And, oh, Max Holloway's not the real BMF. And I don't know what he's had to say about Patty recently. Maybe he's not even mentioning him. That's kind of a power move. But also, it's almost like overexposure, and he's kind of making himself a little bit unlikable. And we've seen some great champions become stars that way.

I mean, Connor McGregor, as proper as he was, had so many detractors on his way up. And as we say in the fight business, that's what you want. You know, people either loving or hating you. So I'm giving him to point. I'm not going to be, because I still think there's a lot more people that love him. But he's got to be careful because that can tilt towards hate and dissenters quickly, especially if he doesn't book his first teledefense soon. All right.

Guy, let's talk about Ilya. He knocks out Charles Olivera, wins the lightweight title that was vacated by Islamachchev. There's Patty. There's Justin Gaichy. We thought Armin could potentially be in play at some point someday. But I'll just like, nah, they offer him to me. I'll just be like, fuck it, take the belt. I don't want it.

I'm not fighting this dude. So how do you grade Ilya's first three and a half weeks or so as UFC lightweight champion? One minute on the clock. Go. I think the big issue when you talk too much is that you give your chance to say a lot of stupid shit. Like saying that Amistaduxa doesn't deserve a title shot. It's, again, stupid. He's playing this character again and again.

again, again, trying to be like Corner with everything. Like his fighting style perfect. If you find like Corner, it's incredible. But these tattoos and all that are questionable. But your interviews and our comments and all that, it's, I think, it's too early to go that deep in the corner when I be like, because Corner was, when he wasn't a champion anymore, he would go on social media and call out everyone that won

on that particular year, week. You win the UFC this weekend. Connor calls you out. So it's annoying. It makes me want to go back to times where internet wasn't a thing, and social media was a thing. I love I, I, you know, to put it as a fighter, but man, he's becoming a lot of it's not annoying.

There you have it. Ilya, getting high grades, high marks from both panelists here for his first few weeks as UFC Lightweight Champion. We'll see who you fight. Does this, is this good for Justin Gaci, think this whole all this chatter you think this ilia it seems like ilia would rather fight gaugie than anybody else right now is this good for him does he have enough power to be like nah i ain't fighting armin and i don't think armin gets the shot anyways i would like to see him get the shot in a meritorocratic

world he should get it but the dude did pull out of a fight a day before a scheduled massive main event the first pay-per-view of the year and unless it's in And look, Habib has done the same thing, and Habib had to go fight Edson Barbosa before he got a chance to fight for the belt. I wonder if Armand should have just taken the Batush Gamrot rematch when apparently was offered to him, maybe just take it. I literally think he just needs to fight anybody and win,

and he's getting a title fight. He's that close at this point, but he's going to have to fight again. So you think this helps Justin Gaci at all? I don't think so. With respect to Justin, I just think he's not in the equation right now. He's being very vocal. That's all you can do, other than booking a fight, which again, he doesn't feel like he has to do to get a title shot.

But like we said with Armin, just to probably going to have to fight again. I got to interrupt you. We got a winner. Oh, that was quick. All right. The winner with 52% of the votes is... Wait, you did it! You did!

I didn't even have the music going on it. I saw it. The Brazilian beast! Take that again. Oh, you jerk. Okay, for the record, look at the comments. When I announced a winner, it was 51% for Gwee. And then AK's two friends voted after I announced a winner.

So officially it says that AK won. But no, when I said it, Gwe won at 51%. You're a loser, A.K., you are a loser. Oh, my God. Wow. Gee, how are we feeling about this? The people's champ, Guy, Gies, Casey stopped the freaking show.

Yes. He stopped the show. Just got the hell of us, everybody. We did it. We did it. We just won the game. How are we feeling like that? It's, it's incredible.

It's incredible. I feel, I'm so happy. It's, uh, champions. Champions. Last year, we won everything. And again, we're July 24th. Yeah. Another, another championship.

We've worked for more this year. Thank you very much, A.K., I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The true record, I think you didn't win a single round. I think Mike just felt sorry for you and gave you two rounds to make this more entertaining for the fans. Man, better look next time. Now you're making me feel sad. Sorry, man.

Okay, do you feel like I still love you, but yeah. Do you feel like you just got Douglas Crosby, AK? He's the best. Glory to Botafogo. Who do they play? Corinthians the Saturday, Guay. Yes. Botafogo, Corinthians.

I saw someone of the comments, by the way. Did you see that? Flamengo? Flamengo? We don't come on now. Banned them. They gave us $5. Okay, okay, okay, okay, fair.

They bought me a coffee, so, yes. Yes. Shout out. So, shout out. Whatever. A.k. Vali and effort. I thought you performed admirable. Gee, great job. Casey, hit the music. We're getting out of here. Yeah, UFC Abu Dhabi, baby. Wayans are going to happen like super early in the morning.

We'll have a preview show sometime tomorrow. We haven't figured all that out yet. People's Free Fight Show at 11.30 a.m. Eastern time. Warm to my heart on Saturday, AK and I matchmaking on the Pod Network, on to the next one Sunday. should be a great weekend, everybody, for Guillermo, for A.K., for Casey. I'm the ones who are doing. I am Mike back to back. I'm back.

Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Link, an event of the fighting production on the Vox Media Network.