MMA Fighting - BTL | Reaction to Diaz vs. Masvidal, Joshua’s Brutal Finish Of Ngannou, UFC 299, and More

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

This past weekend delivered unforgettable moments for MMA fans — both on the positive and negative sides — with Anthony Joshua’s absolutely ferocious knockout of Francis Ngannou, and the incredible UFC 299 event that featured spectacular performances from Sean O’Malley, Dustin Poirier, and others. What was the biggest fallout story from this past weekend? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses the fallout of both Joshua vs. Ngannou and UFC 299 events, where Ngannou, O’Malley, and Poirier go from here, and other storylines from this past weekend in combat sports. Additionally, they’ll discuss the hotly discussed ending to the Cedric Doumbe vs. Baysangur Chamsoudinov fight from PFL Europe this past Thursday, react to the booking of Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal in a boxing match on June 1, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Shaun Al-Shatti. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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, Mom. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand,

new edition of BTL. Welcome back to another Thursday show. And once again, so, so much to talk about, so much to recap, so much to react to. So let's get right into it. Let us introduce the combatants, at least who we have here. We'll talk about more of that in the second. First, he's our Woody Page. He's Mr. No Gray Area. No fence sitting at all for this man. He's from M.AFighting.com, and he has a great message on the whiteboard, Mr. Jedmishu, the quarter unit king. How are you, sir? Aside from the great message on the whiteboard, you said one of our combatants, because there's only one of us, Mike, somebody who's too scared to show up. I thought John Jones was the biggest coward of M.A.

Not true. Sheen Al-Shoddy, where are you at, bro? T-K-O, round one, Jeddah shoe. Oh, man. Yes, hammer time indeed. Hello, Shaheen. Way more hair than you usually have. Truth be told, Sean was.

and is still sort of scheduled to join us. He is having internet issues, and it happened at the absolute worst time. So we had this whole show planned. We had all these different rounds and topics. But what we're going to do, ladies and gentlemen, is we're going to audible. We're going to the people's BTL.

We're going to do a Q&A. So we're going to let you guys dictate the topics, the questions. Of course, we have the super chat features. You can jump the line. You guys weren't ready for this. So I'm going to let this all linger. I'm going to let you all put in your questions because I think everything we're going to talk about anyways,

you're going to touch on. We're going to touch on anyways. Jed, what were you going to say? Here's something else that's not ready because you're not ready because I just thought of this right now. Since somebody is too shook to step up, you put in a super chat for what do we say, $100? You can come in and fight me on BTL.

Do we think $100 is the number, Mike? I mean, we could start the bidding at $100 bucks. And then we can just go. Ooh, a bidding war. See, boom. All I know is I showed up. I am not a, what did Connor McGregor famously call Habib, a pullout merchant? Not me.

I show up every time is necessary. And some of us are too shook to answer the call. So Casey, I'd like you to put another W up on the board for me on my official record. And then let's get to chatting with the peeps. Hey, listen, Shaheen still might show up. So while we let the questions compile, I want to get your thoughts on this thing first because I want to start with yesterday.

Wednesday for those listening way in the future, you're getting the victory theme already. And your prizes, we get to talk about some breaking news we got yesterday, Jed. Ariel Hawani teased it before the MMA hour and we got it. June 1st in the year of our Lord 2024, it is going to be a very busy day in the combat

sports world. We'll have the Better BF Bivel boxing match. As it seems currently, it's unofficially official. That is going to be the date of UFC 302. At least it's targeted for that, expected to be in Newark, New Jersey. But across the country, all the way on the other coast, Inglewood, California, Casey Leiden's backyard, maybe he ends up on this card. Another big fight in event is set.

It's the rematch, this time in the boxing ring between Nate Diaz and Jorge Mazadol, 10 rounds, 175 pounds, excuse me, at the fabulous forum. Signed, sealed and delivered. So this was kind of hard to put into words for a number of reasons because we knew this fight between Diaz and Mazadol was being talked about. We knew it was going to get booked. We just didn't know the location. We didn't know the date.

And now it's over the goal line. It's a bit different than we thought it would be. I think it's a little bit later down the line than we thought it was going to be originally. But it is sharing a date with multiple events, Jed. So what is your reaction to the fight, this news, and the fact that it's happening June 1st, potentially sharing a day with the UFC and another big boxing event? I was a little surprised, right? I think we all know that this is sort of where they were targeting, but I just kind of was skeptical that it was going to happen, I guess, which is maybe silly of me, because it does make sense for them both from a business standpoint, even if does anyone care about this competitively? I'm not sure.

If you do, great. Like, you're going to enjoy yourselves. This is just, I watched them fight before. Yes, this is boxing and not MMA. I would still suggest that a very similar outcome is likely to occur. But I was really interested in the date they chose to do it because we do know that the UFC is allowing this to happen from Jorge's position, right? Like, they still have him under contract. They have allowed him to pursue boxing matches.

and I don't know if they just didn't know the date he would pursue, but it does seem interesting for them to willingly go head to head with the UFC pay-per-view. Now, we have no idea what 302 is going to end up looking like. I'll also admit the second thing I thought as I looked at the conflicting schedule is like, why are they going to Jersey? They're going to Atlantic City like later this month. Why are we going back to Jersey for a pay-per-view?

Neither here nor there. that could be a dog like a crappy pay-per-view. It's very, very possible because as we'll talk, they've stacked a lot of their best fights onto a couple of key events this year, which is really minimizing their ability

to fill up future stuff. So maybe 302 isn't good and they're not counter-programming like a major pay-per-view or being counter-programmed heavily by the UFC. But with that, with the boxing, it's just a really, feels like they could have picked any other week weekend and that might have been smarter.

So I would love to hear why this was the weekend chosen. But ultimately, do I care about this? Only because it's good for us. Like there's going to be content from this. People will care, but this is not one for me. Yeah. And we obviously talked a lot about this on heck of a morning. The date is just super weird.

And I know Ariel talked about on the MA hour saying that he obviously like asked about the date. And they were like, yeah, we're fine with it. We're not too worried about it. I got to tell you, man, if they book Islam Makachep versus Dustin Porre to headline that card, they are screwed. They are completely screwed. I think their best hope right now, unless they're going to do this card super early. So like, you know, it is on the West Coast. They start in the afternoon and maybe the main card walks start at like 8 p.m. Eastern or 9 p.m. Eastern.

I think that's one thing. But I think if we're going head to head with the pay-per-view headline by Islam Machachep versus Dustin Porier, not a good thing, especially with both events at the time since. We're not basically, we don't go with the foundation that we buy paper views two months before they happen or even three months in this case to save the extra money. We just wait till like the day before the day of to buy it. So are people going to spend 80 bucks on the UFC and spend 80 bucks on this? Probably not. Honestly, I think their best hope right now. And I don't want this to sound like I'm being a prick, but I'm just being honest from a business sense.

I think if you're Mazadol, Diaz, which I don't even think they're really. care what the UFC main event is because I think they're going to get paid the same no matter what. But I think if you're the actual promoter that's putting this event on, I think you better pray Leon Edwards versus Belal Mohammed is the event. That's like your best hope right now because that's not going to do a great number on pay-per-view, but Mislan versus Porier, especially after what happened this past weekend, is going to do bonkers on pay-per-view.

Yeah. I mean, look, I am not in charge of Roy Mastodal's finances. and I'm sure he's doing okay. He perhaps consider being more concerned about location and things like this because like all of the game bread fights just are in giant arenas that sell seven tickets based on like ticket master and now this like, we're not concerned about this. Like I don't know, man, maybe you should be.

Like location is half the battle and you have not picked an ideal location temporarily. I mean, I think the location physically is great, like doing it in California. Obviously makes a ton of sense. I just like, the weekend before is at least right now an open UFC weekend. Like there's nothing in that. Why wouldn't you just be there? Because even if that becomes not an open UFC weekend, it's going to be an apex card. So it's just you are not setting yourself up.

And it's Memorial Day weekend. Didn't even think of that. Didn't even think of that. Like it's just they just could be doing they could be optimizing this better and I'm sure that there must be a reason if it said this is the venue they wanted and this is the only date available for that venue. I don't know. But they feel like they have landed on not a great time for this. Yeah. So just to be clear, the payvery is being provided by FanMeo.

So they're the same company that put the Logan Paul Floyd Mayweather. their card together. So, and then the promotional, they'll be like the promotional arms to the fan, Mio body. If, you know, Real Flight Inc. and Game Bread. So not sure how much they gain financially or if they're just like,

yeah, we'll do this for you guys, but you just have to put our names and our promotions as part of it. But I think a lot is riding on what headlines tune first for how, I mean, for us, like people are going to want to know what happens. It's just a matter of,

I think they'll sell tickets. It's Diaz. It's outside of Los Angeles. They're going to sell tickets for sure. Just how many people are going to pay 80 bucks to watch this if the UFC is putting on a damn good card? And that's like one of my major questions because if you'd ask me a month ago,

I'd be like, yeah, they probably will end up fighting and maybe this is just like lame and low-hanging fruit of me. I'll be like, they'll probably fight in Saudi. Saudi is just throwing infinite dollars at stuff and this wouldn't even be a high price point for them. Like they're not going to have to roll out Tyson, Fury money to get this fight in Riyadh. They just be like, we'll give you each $5 million, which is nothing to us.

And then that's a guarantee. Like by promoting it themselves, if it does gangbusters, great, they're going to make a ton. I just, what is the appetite for this? Like you said, I'm certain they'll sell tickets. I'm sure there is an appetite locally. I've no idea what a pay-per-view appetite for this fight is at this stage of their lives. we'll see i mean there is a story here i was cage side for 244 i know how that fight went mazadol put a whoopin on nate i didn't think it was going to get much better but Nate also

you know the cut and the stoppage from the doctor most other states probably don't stop that fight so there's always that sort of hey i still won even though i lost unfinished business type of thing so we'll see two big stars two big names it'll be interesting to see how nate approaches this fight compared to the Jake Paul fight. I assume it'll be much different, but we'll see. I'm sure there'll be more follow-up questions to that, but I just wanted to get your initial reaction to it. So let's go to the peeps.

Let's discuss 299 in Gano, Joshua, all sorts of fun stuff. We had that. We reacted to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, but I'm sure we might get questions about that too. Casey, hello? How are you? Hi. I'm Sean.

I'm Shaheen. I'm a big loser of bad internet. Oh my God. Go sons. I ain't saying any of this shit, Sheen. Mark that deputy editor. Oh, sorry. I am the great Shaheen.

I am very handsome. Look, it's my biceps. Yeah, look at my biceps. Yeah, I forgot I do have a meaning with me later. I take back all the things I said bad about you. I have a performance review with you later, Sheen, my dad. I'm doing great. Take your time.

You and your AOL? Listen, it happens to be all the time, so I hear you. All right. Yes. Here we go. ProFights Info. RIPed a little hammer, though, Mark's dog who woke him up and saved him and his parents from the fire. Yeah, absolutely.

Obviously, a little bit of an update. Mark Coleman, breathing, talking, doing the thing. grateful, feels like he's the luckiest man in the world. I'm sure you guys see him seen the video on on Twitter already. It's a freaking guy. That'll get you right there. There's video of him? Oh, I'll miss you.

Oh, cool. That's great. I haven't seen the video yet. Pop it up. It'll go off camera because it'll get you. Okay. Yeah, it'll get you. And obviously, condolences for a little hammer,

hero in his own right. for and I hope now that it so what's the what's how is the status right now is he just is he out of intensive care or what's still the ICU

but he is up he is he is aware awake conversing seems to be in good shape knows his parents are alive okay he's good all that stuff so he he is up as a huge

human and seems to be on a good path. That's fantastic. And since this is America, please donate to his GoFund because it sounds like the situation they're in financially is very, very bad medically and also they lost a house. So any help can do? Yep. All right. Let's talk about last week.

Joseph, do the sugar show really arrive in Miami? Thought his fight was okay, but he couldn't finish Cheeto. Oh my God, Joseph. You're about to get it, brother. Now he wants Ilya to pour you. We have a contender at 145. Mavza Ravloia is sugar nervous of a rob. So, look, there's so much wrong with this question.

Dude, he couldn't finish Cheeto. Nobody. What a loser. He couldn't finish Cheeto. He couldn't mop up the ocean either. fucking insane thing to say. When you're talking, Joseph, I love you, buddy, but Jesus,

this is a terrible take. Thought his fight was okay? I thought this is like one of his better, if not his best performance. This is his best performance. It was his best performance. So here's the thing. Like, I've seen this take a lot.

I've seen, oh, it was just okay because he fought number six or number seven, Marlon Vera, but he didn't finish him, which I think you know by now, the man is impossible to finish. He's also the only man actually make Marlon Vera look like he was in an actual fist fight because no one has ever even

put a mark on that man's base. He just remembered the man. He looked like a different person. No one's done that to Cheeto before. Secondly, yeah. On the other side, I've seen some people say like, oh, this, what Sean O'Malley did on Saturday was the greatest title defense I've ever seen, which is also not true because Volkovsky's had three better, Schenko's had like three better, and that's just off the top of my head. But what this was, was this was not a perfect game, but Shotto Malli took a no hitter into the ninth. He gave up like an infield single

and threw a one hit shutout. Like it was a damn good performance against a tough, durable son of a gun in Marlon Vera. So okay is not the way I would describe this title defense, Jed. Yeah, it was great. This is by far the best ever looked.

If you would say, yeah, he couldn't finish Cheeto. Tell me who has. Who has, Joseph? Who's finished him? Did Corey Sandhagen finish him? Here's how good the performance was. Corey Sandhagen, who is invested in fighting Sean O'Malley as the champion of the weight class. Coe's on his YouTube does a breakdown and admits it's like, so I mean, basically Sean did a lot of the same stuff I did to Cheeto, only he did a lot more of it and hit him a lot harder.

And we all remember Corey Sanhagen hanging a 50, 45 on Cheetos ass. Like this is an insane take. No, it's not the greatest performance ever. Yes, he got hit down the stretch because Cheetos real hard and you just can't finish him. And so eventually you're going to give up some offense on the back end. I thought this is easily the best that Sean Amali's ever looked. This fight entirely, none of the rest of his fights have ever made me think he stands any chance against Marab. This fight I am now very interested in how that fight plays out as opposed to just being interested because it is what should happen.

I now have legitimate questions what can go on here because he is improving and not just improving. He showed durability. He showed a lot of stuff that I didn't know was in Sean O'Malley. I mentioned on the post show and specifically the thing that stuck out to me the most in this fight is coming. And I thought that if Sean was going to win, it was going to be a Carlos Condit Nick Diaz affair, where he simply just can't engage in the kind of fight Mawlin wants to engage in. but that ultimately is maybe not the most exciting fight when people are expecting it instead he still did all the sean o'malley stuff he wants to do and when chito would start to get something going when chito would land something and finally look like oh maybe he's going to turn the tide sean didn't just run away and reset and try and get back into his rhythm he made chito stop he sat down and fired eight back with heat

and chito had to be like all right i'm going to back off for a minute like that sort of rugged who has never really been a part of Sean O'Malley's game, and he showed that on Saturday as well. If you come out of this thinking anything other than Sean O'Malley delivered in A performance and is one of, if not the best three bantam weights in the world, you're out of your goddamn mind. Like, I do not know what else to tell you. Casey? Yeah, it was a, a performance. Maybe not a plus, A performance.

And Connie, oh, it's not the. best ever title defense. There's been, there's been thousands of title defense. Sorry, he wasn't, he wasn't number one most dominant title defense ever,

but it was the top five, but yes. Well, you know, I mean, just, I don't know, people like, I've seen other more dominant fights. It's like,

okay, there's been lots of fights. It was, um, it was incredible. And, um, yeah,

now it does make me more interested in the, um, Marab, um, fight because of sugar's just, I guess just fight IQ's just, I guess just fight IQ. and just sticking to a game plan and still being aggressive.

And yeah, he did get hit in the last 10 seconds. But even he said, like, oh, if I was one, I decided to have a little fun in there. And whoops, that was dumb. All right, don't do that again. That's all. Okay. So that's the performance that we're on the same page. Does call it elite support.

Yeah. Kind of knew it was coming, even though he backtracked a little bit and was like, everybody hated the Teporia call out. So I'm just going to go, it's going to be Marab next no matter what. And then he goes and no sells Marab and then kind of no sells him in the back. And Marab was a little pissed off by that. So A great for the performance shed. But overall, with the call of Billy Tepori and after listen to the ranking show, you and Shaheen were both on the same page.

Let's just go to Spain and do Ilya versus Sean O'Malley right now. Let's not wait for it. It's the best way we together. I will drive to South Carolina and fist fight you. But obviously, him calling up. When he called out Ilya, where you're just like, oh, come on, dude. Like, I mean, in the back, back in the mind, he's like, look, if they want me to fight Marab, like, I'll fight Marab. But Sean's shooting a shot.

Does it ding on the overall grade for you with the Ilya call out? It does because I hate it. I do at least, I understand it because we, and we talked about this sort of at length on the rankings pod, so go give that a listen. But I hate it. I think it's awful. I think it's awful both from a I just am done with this. I'm so over champ champ stuff.

I have been over it for longer than everyone else, but it just persists. I want it to die, but also because it's not going to happen. And so like, shoot your shot, you know, but it's not going to happen.

And so all you did was diminish your next fight. There are ways to have built your next fight up better than what he did. He didn't, like if he just calls it and it's like, Hey, everybody's saying Marab's the best dude that he's going to run over me. But people were saying that about Cheeto even though that's a lie. He could have still

say you can say lies. That's fine. Like, I'm going to come in. He's sitting here. Cajide, Dana, bring him in here. I'm going his ass out. And that gives you a promo and builds that next fight that is going to happen. Instead, he called out Elia. And like I said, I understand it because now is the only

time that it could happen. It won't. It's super should not. But he's got to fight Mara next. I think he can beat Marab. I did not think that three weeks ago. I now think that he can beat Marab. But here's the rub, man. He beats Maraub. That's great. He can call out Ilya, but one, Ilya might not be the champ. Maybe Volk's taking it back. Maybe Mobsar has stepped in. Featherweight also has a range of contenders. And by the time, Sean O'Malley fights Marab Dvalesvili, it seems like we are full gears ahead for Corey Sandhagan fighting Umarna Mark McMetov.

And I got to tell you, if a buddy with the last name of Normaca Meadow beats Corey Sanhagen, he's just getting a title fight. That's just it. And Sean's not going to be able to be like, no, now I want to fight I'll fight. He's going to have to do the things champions do. If you want to be the champion, be the champion. If you don't, just bail. And that's fine.

He said it himself in the post-fight presser. He was like, I'm bigger than the belt. Sweet, drop the belt. Go fight whoever the hell you want to do and whoever you can make fight. I'm okay with that. But if you're going to be the champion, just to hang. around and defend against the multiple dudes in this weight class who deserve it. Piotr Yon's coming up.

Davis and Figurado is about to knock Cody Garbrand and suddenly he's going to be there. If he didn't get it right now, he's going to have to make two to three more title defenses before it becomes an option because of the just frankly the level of fighter that is at bantam weight and progressing up the ranks right now. So I get it. I hate it. It's not going to happen. I do think ultimately it was a bad choice.

but you know this is the world we live in even ilia was like even though he was like kind of calling forward down the stretch even after the call it even he was like you know what i didn't think you're actually going to do this but uh go beat marob and then we can

talk like marob's right there go fight him first like he he needs to make up his goddamn mind yeah because he like he pre ufc two ninety eight is like i'm not going to fight any of these dudes i don't whatever which was lame as shit and then after he won the belt, he did chirp at Sean. It was like, if you win,

you want to do this. And then after he's like, no, like, dude, just pick one, man, just pick a dude and run with it. It's going to be Volk,

but just pick anyone. And that's fine too. Yeah. And we don't even know if they're going to get to Spain this year. We don't know. They're going to try, but they're not getting to Spain,

Mike. They didn't ever get to Africa when they had three goddamn African champions. Then they're getting to Spain. Come on. They can't do anything right. They booked UFC Australia a month before they went to Australia. They did it in the apex.

Yeah. They can't do anything. What do you think of the last question? Do you think it's because he's nervous of Marab or do you think Sean is just like, I want the biggest money fights I can get? Like, that's what I'm trying to do. And obviously, no disrespect to Marab. If they somehow book a stadium in Spain and Ilya is the main event,

obviously Ilya versus O'Malley is a bigger fight than O'Malley. Valley versus Marab at the T-Mobile arena. It just is. But I don't think this means that sugar is nervous of Marab, right? I don't think so. Yeah. So, Casey, this was for you. Oh, it was for me?

Oh, I was like, no. I said, I know that's right? Oh, you did. Oh, you did, but it was at the start and I think he just didn't hear it. Oh, he's all right. Yeah, it's okay. No, he's not nervous. The idea of like, I'm nervous of, I'm nervous about Marab,

grinding me out and you know i'm going to say pitter-patter but you know 50-40-foring me versus facing elia who will like potentially like knock my head out no out of the country if we find in spain like it'll be like you have to find it in the mediterranean i mean like it's a scary fight either way but i get to me the bigger question is like it's like because it's price fighting i i don't hate to call out at all it annoys me as a fan but it has to If I was Sean himself, I was like, I mean, how much more money? Do you think two, three times more money facing Elia versus Marab? I truly do not think that it is substantial.

Down the line, it will be. I believe I'm really Tepore is about to be the biggest star in the sport. And maybe the biggest star since Connor. Like I believe that with my whole heart. I believe that that's about to be. If they go to Spain, he will sell out a stadium. That will be great. I also have no belief that he is going to sell any more amount of pay-per-views,

which is the bulk of the business model and the bulk of the extra money that comes to champions is revenue sharing on paper views. Sean is not even like a great pay-per-view draw. If you listen to what Aljo said, it's like I thought I was going to get a whole ton. I got a little bit extra. It wasn't that much, which honestly probably tracks with sort of the data points that I'm aware of for Sean O'Malley, imminently popular and can grow into this. sort of pay-per-view heavyweight, but his fan base doesn't entirely overlap with the pay-per-view

purchasing fan base that the biggest MMA stars kind of need to make money. I think the same as with Alia. I doubt that he is selling 700,000 pay-per-views at this juncture of his career. In a couple of years, he might be. And so, like, this is getting a second belt. There's the cachet, all of that. He won't get it. He would get fucking annihilated. But on a, like, what the paycheck he would get strictly from these next two fights, I doubt it is significantly more. It's probably a little bit more because it is champ, champ fight. That sells a little bit more. But I doubt it's to the tune of millions, you know.

Oh, if it is millions more. Yeah. Take, take the, what is it? What is it tough? What is it tough? Because people are saying he scared him, Rob, what's the tough? Oh, it's a little bit. But that's why I want to put out there because that's what feels crazy because, oh, Sean's

scared him a rap. So he's going to take a tougher fight. So it is a more difficult fist fight. There is substantially lower cost to it. Losing to Ilya is baked into the proposition. So your resume, your mystique is not harmed by losing to Ilya. That is the benefit of moving up a weight class. It's why, but for the one time T.J. did it, basically.

You never see champions go down a weight class to chase a belt because that looks. worse if you lose going up. You at least have the freebie of, oh, well, he wasn't supposed to win. Again, I get it. At the same time, I think it's so unrealistic that, like, it's, to me, it's the same as calling for a fight with Floyd Bayweather. Sure, if that happens, that would be the best business. It's just not going to happen. So you're wasting all of our time on the dumbest thing possible. Like, just be slightly realistic would be, like, that's all I really ever want. Yeah. Taste your dreams.

And then just the whole real quick before you move on, just the whole 292 buy rate thing, I don't take a lot of stock into that, even if it is low because it was like, that was probably like the worst time to headline a pay-per-view after two packed, redonculus pay-per-views in July. Not to mention Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz was like a week before that. There's just like, you're shelling out 200 bucks before that card. But if you are the kind of star that some people believe Sean is, it wouldn't matter what the other,

like what the surrounding landscape was. Connor selling a mill. That's who he is. I don't think anyone thought, I'm not saying any of us have ever said that Sean is the next Connor, but there are people who believe that that's, I think maybe one day he gets there. I think that he is slightly more popular paper view-wise,

not respective to anything else, but there's a very different calculation for who is, selling paper views versus not selling paper views because that audience is just different than the streaming audience that like follow Sean O'Malley on YouTube or whatever. Yeah. Because that audience is also smart enough to know how to watch things without paying $80 for them. There are ways to do that. Or you can just go to www.com, great website. And we got you covered. It's like watching it basically with my live blog. It's basically the same.

You can watch us watching it. For you? It's best. It's free. It's free. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun. Play Ojo. Boating will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only.

Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close. You call 18665331-260 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. All right, we got a $10 super chat. Excellent. Verity.

Cheeto is handpicked for Sean stationary target and easy to hit. Zero lateral movement from that guy. Can we chill? Shee, feed him to Mirob. Obviously, dude, this is a no-brainer heading into 292. We all said this.

If Chito Vera beats Pedro Munoz and Sean O'Malley wins the Badaimway title, they are making this fight. This isn't handpicked. This is set in stone. That's why both fights. That's why Cheeto and Sean were both on 292. that's why when Henry Suhudo got hurt,

we were like, Cheeto has to fight on this card. Put him in there with anybody. It does not matter. He just needs to fight Sean O'Malley coming off of a win against absolutely anybody, and they're going to make this fight. But again,

Sean O'Malley beat the soul out of Cheeto Vera. Like, he beat his ass, and he messed up his face. He made Cheeto bleed his own blood. No one does that. Rob Fon hit him in the face 325 times. And Marlon Vera looks like he just walked his dog around the block without a mark on him,

on a sunshiny 80 degree light wind day. Sean O'Malley beat him up, mangled him up. This is impressive performance. He hurt Marlon a couple of times. Didn't finish him, but he hurt him. Look that knee he landed. JDM gets a lot of credit for that. That was knockout of the year.

Sean O'Malley got robbed of knockout of the year because of Cheetos freaking skull would not cave in. That would have been, that knee should have been, that was patchy mix versus a Stott type of knockout. We're like just like, it should have seriously hurt Maraub. And it annoyed Mara. That's about it.

I'm sorry, not Mara. I'm annoyed. Yeah. Cheeto. I take your point, Casey, but I don't think we can say anything's knockout of the year when we

literally saw the hardest punch thrown by a human being in history. Send Francis and Godhue to the shadow realm on Friday. That's knockout of the goddamn lifetime as far as I'm concerned. My only note on Verity's comment here is, do we think Marab is Marab a master of lateral movement? Like if you watched him fight, is Marab out there circling and cutting vicious angles? No.

So that's not even the point. We should feed him to Marab and see how that goes. Again, I think I'm picking Marab, but it won't shock me if Sean just circles. and fires 800 shots a minute into his face. Marab, I'll tell you what, we've seen Marab get hurt. If Marab's eating that knee, he's done. Because most people of that weight class are done if they're eating that knee.

Like, it's a really interesting fight. We're going to get it. I'm very excited about getting it. It's just a bit unfortunate. We have to go through all this other garbage to get to the obvious and future answer. Yeah, Marab is the fight. There is no other fight. is Marab de Wallis, really. Let's go.

I'm interested in it. And I think Sean is very, like, I think Sean can beat him. Marab is very hitable. He is very hitable. He does not have tremendous defense on the feet. Sohudo didn't like drop him, drop him. But Sohudo stung him in that fight in that first round. He put him to a knee and Mara was like, oh, shit.

He had to shake up the cobwebs a little bit. Sean hits a lot harder than Henry Sehudo does. So that is a very good time in too. Yeah. Love that fight. We have a counter super chat. Oh, super chatting with you, Verity. Yes.

Oh, hadi. Sean Amali did awesome, but Cheeto often looks off until he finds a finish. Cheeto's a fan favorite, but very overrated. Marab is the real test. Not really a, I mean, somewhat of a counter, but. Well, I mean, he says Sean Amati did awesome. Everyone else is like, Sean Amali must suck because I guess Cheeto sucks now because he got his ass kicked. Sean is just okay because he couldn't finish the unfinishedable guy.

But we all, they landed, they took different paths. This is a little game of shoots and ladders, but they all landed at the finish line, give them a rob and let's see. And what are essay? I don't, Cheetos overrated by some people, right? And those people are primarily Ecuadorian. And then like there are some other people who just like him and think, but he's pretty accurately rated, I think for us.

I'm about to pull up our rankings. I think we have them like in the top 10. which is fine because that's about who he is. He is a guy who doesn't, and this is going to sound a little bit hypocritical coming from me. He's a bit Brian Ortega-E, except for Brian just all the way sucks, and Cheeto has some good quotes to him.

In that he doesn't really win moments. He just kind of wins fights, and that is a way to compete. It is a tough way to compete at the highest level, but there are dudes like that out there. I mean, Yo-L. Romero's whole career, was not a round winning fighter. He won fights.

That's who Cheeto is. We have Cheeto rank number nine. I think that's correct. Like, that's just about right. He's a top 10-ish, certainly a top 15 guy, but he's not really up the top. We all just know he got this title fight for reasons. And that's okay.

So some people are overrating him. I think he's mostly accurately rated. Yeah. He's, I mean, Derek Lewis. Derek Lewis is like the prime. not round winner. He just is always dangerous at any point. And like sometimes he does nothing.

You tell that to Francis Inganu. Yeah, well, that was that was a different way. Derek Lewis won those rounds against Francis. Thank you very much. Also, Derek Lewis is our number 14 heavyweight. So again,

in that same 10 to 15 range is about right. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not even the biggest Cheeto fan, but man, all this, all this hate that Cheetos just sucks now. I'm like, come on, man.

You guys are crazy. I mean, the reason you should dislike Cheeto is because Cheeto could be great. Cheeto has the raw tools to be exceptional. And instead, he's what he is. He is, he's an athlete and not like, or a fighter or whatever. Like, he just isn't, if Cheeto learned to fight instead of just fighting, he'd be so damn good because he can't be hurt. And he does have real offense. But he like hasn't ever tried to keep up with the meta and be like, hey, I'm going to be a high,

volume fighter, I'm going to start fast instead of wait for 15 minutes before I punch. It has to be infuriating to coach him. Can you imagine the first round between Cheeto and Peter Yan? It would be the only first round in history that Peertyon would win. Because he will at least put some volume out as he is trying to gather reeds. Cheeto, like, it is just listening to the corner the whole time, like this fight was a little less southern Sandhagen fight where they are basically just pleading with him to do anything. But it's still like, all right, all right, Cheeto, we knew he was going to have a strong

first round. This is where we come alive. Okay, Cheeto, it's time to come alive now. You got to get out there and you got to try and do some stuff. Okay, Cheeto, anytime you want to start punching would be great for us. We'd be huge fans of it. This is the same thing every time, man. Like, he has to be infuriating to coach.

Yeah. Inferiorating and also, oh my God, how did you survive that knee still? Yeah. How did he survive that knee? How did he freaking survive that knee? Unbelievably tough. It's great. All right.

Got a super chat from our good friend, Achilles Jr. Oh, super chatting with you, Hattie. Achilles, B-Tale is awesome, guys, especially the ones with Jed, because someone has to have the worst takes who's most likely to get to it. My takes are great. Damn. I love my takes. Your Rick usually get the stories.

Who's most likely to get deaded this weekend besides OSP? Jed, I think this is a pretty clear cut answer. Mike, I got to tell you, I did not think we were going to get questions about U.S. Vegas 88 this weekend with all the other things that could be talked about. Who's going to get deaded this week? Probably OSP, but I don't, I wouldn't feel confident. because, I mean, it's, one, have you listened to No Betts Barre? I have created a new nickname for Kennedy and Zichukwu.

He will henceforth and forever be known as Kenny Nunchukes. And Kenny Nunchukes is not a reliable fighter, so I wouldn't bank on OSP losing. Who's going to get deaded this week? I mean, I think Marcyne is going to get dead at this week. I feel pretty okay about Marcyne Taibura getting dead at this week. Mitch Roder Ramirez is probably the actual best answer because Tiago Moises is good and he's not. But I think Taiburo is about to get got.

Yeah, that's probably like, it's probably the answer. So, yeah, I'm with you. It's probably Taibora. But, man, if we get to like the six minute mark of that fight, sheesh, that's going to get real ugly. When Ty wins, it's exclusively by. knockout. And I think he's going to rebound just because the guys, to his credit, when he went on

the MMA hour this week, he was like, yeah, I'm on a three-fight losing streak. Look at the dudes I've lost two. That's fine. Like, I lost to Volkov, I lost to Cyrilgan. These are, and I was doing very well against Cyril Gan. These are reasonable losses. That's true. Marcin-Tibor is a very different ilk than that crop.

And I think, Ty's in position to get back on track. I think something's about to happen, guys. What things? You'll see. Oh, is it a Shaheen thing or is there breaking news? No, there's no breaking news. I mean, I want to say he was going to get deaded and it's going to be Chelsea Chandler because the beast, newness is moving down to Bandsenway to wreck havoc and take over the division.

Chelsea Chandler is out of Stockton and I operate under the assumption that. no one from Stockton can ever get deaded. Except by Nunes. All right. Two decision in the last two fights. Do you do. She said 35 minutes. You won't listen to Nobets board.

You won't notice this. In 2023, women's Bannonweight fights in the UFC went to decision 73% of the time. Because they're so gosh dang competitive. They are. I'm just saying this one's going to decision. as well. Statistically, that's the most likely outcome.

If she doesn't run away from the heat from Josiana Nunes, then yeah. She's so small. If she was larger, she would be just amazing. Another Vegas ADA question. Any fight you are looking forward to this weekend and why not? Lettija, that's a terrific question. Are you looking forward to anything, Mike? Dude, I got to tell you, this to me is, this card has no stakes.

I mean, none at all. I mean, you have some at Women's 135, but all these women are so far away from a title shot. Right now, it's not even funny. But, like, just looking at the rest of the fights, like, Tiago Moises and Mitch Ramirez, I think we kind of know what's going to happen there. But the rest of the car, like all of these fights are going to be fun as hell. Like there's, they're not fighting for anything except a second paycheck, but it's got to be a fun watch. Brian Battle Anglosa is going to be a fun fight.

Kennedy's Chichuco Oven-Say-Proux could be really sad, so I'll skip that one. Christian Rodriguez, Isaac Dolgarian is going to be a fun-ass fight. Gerald Mirashar, Brian Barberina is going to be fun as hell for as long as it lasts. Mike Davis is bad. Hell yeah. Mike Davis. they are going to beat the shit out of each other. O'Day Osborne, Jafel Filo.

Someone's getting like flying need, K-O'd. Josh Coolabout, Danny Silva is going to be absolute, like, recklessness. And Chaddelliger versus Grigario is going to be reckless too.

So like, these guys ain't fighting for anything. So if you take all the sizzle and stakes and all of it out of this and compare it to $2.99, like you can't do that. But if you just look at this as like, look,

I'm just going to go in and just watch. watch fights and have a good time, open-minded, I think you can't have a damn good time on Saturday. Like, there's a lot of fun-ass fights that mean really nothing in the overall landscape of things, but they are fun-ass fights nuts. Yeah, I mean, exactly right. Like, I think that this can end up being a tasty burger.

It's not a... It can be pretty good. If I'm picking one, it's Danny Silva Josh Coolbow. Danny Silver rocked. Who is that man who no longer has hair? and has all his sleeves on. I don't know who this person is who's jumped in. But yeah, Danny Silva coming off the Contender Series, he just rocks.

That's it. Like, he's super fun. I am a very big enjoyer of his fist fights. I had him ranked in the big paws and a puppy, so I was like a legitimate prospect to watch coming off Contender series in his fight with Angel Pacheco. That fight was his thing. make as the best fight of the whole season and Pacheco even coming up that loss is getting his

UFC debut at the end of the month at the Atlantic City card like he's uh danes still is super fun cool about has been pretty good that's a really fun but also see wild bulgarians probably fun like there are some moments they are going to be tough here but i think there are also some moments that are going to be quite enjoyable yeah mike davis and danny still on the same card Mike Davis won half of the best fight ever on the Contender Series with Sadiq Yusuf. That fight friggin rocked from one of the earlier seasons. So if you've never watched that fight, highly recommend you go back and watch that one. You will not be sorry.

Shaheen, can you hear us? What's up to us? Yes. Yes, now I can. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. Did you have AirPods now? Do I have AirPods?

I was literally on a podcast with you yesterday with these on. I wasn't paying attention. I was firing takes off. You had some spicy ones. You had some real spicy ones. I'm bummed. I was looking forward to this little friendly competition. I apologize.

Cox Internet is the worst internet in the history of mankind, and I'm incredibly frustrated with them. I pay them way too much money for this consistently terrible, terrible internet. So my apologies, gentlemen. Thank you for the segue. This show is being brought to you by. Now, I'm just kidding.

Let's keep the questions going. It was great to talk to you, Matija. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials.

Order Uber Eats now. Alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ.

Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence. While Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at one peloton.ca. Oh, wow, coming in just for this one. I see how it is.

Oh, Porre and Islam sells. If there's any chance, busted wins. Habib and Charles both choked him out. Shaheen Al-Shad, he's a coward, Jed the goat. I think Chad is just taking Jed's opening lines. I know what you're talking about. But Shaheen is here right now. He is here.

Oh. He is. show it up. Is this true? All right. I have to rewind this program after the fact. And then he realized that he had a performance review with you earlier and he took it all back.

Yeah, I rescinded it all as I recall. But Shaheed, I'll throw this to you. Any chance Dustin wins against Islam? Because that fight I would say is a very good chance this one happens, especially if Islam truly is ready

to fight in June and no other timeline works for him. What are the chance at 1 to 10? What chance to give Dustin Porre of beating is on Makachev? Of winning that fight? Probably not very high. Maybe like a 3 out of 10. I mean, he is Dustin Porre.

Ultimately, he's one of the best lightweights in the world. He's one of the best lightweights of all time. I've really enjoyed the discussion we had on a little plug here on the ranking show this week. Basically, essentially trying to parse out Dustin Porier's place in the lightweight pantheon and sort of where he stands. amongst this division historically because Lightweight is such a weird division, right? Like it's such a volatile division. It's always been pretty much the most talent heavy division that in Bantamweight.

But like there's just not sustained runs of dominance. You kind of get guys who are really good in windows of maybe four, five, six, seven years if you're lucky. And Dustin's just been doing this for so long. I mean, Jen and I, we totaled it up. Like the sheer amount of wins that this man has racked up that are, you would really consider quality wins in the life. weight division at this point, it is genuinely greater than any other fighter to ever do it at 155. Like, there's a very real case that Dustin Poir is a top four to three lightweight all time right now.

And if he was able to get this title shot and pull off just an incredible upset, I think he could very well just be the second best lightweight we've ever seen. I don't, I wouldn't pick it. I hope that fight is ultimately what happens because to me that's the most interesting version of how this can play out just because the UFC, has Rob Peter to pay Paul with its short-term thinking with all this. I don't, I wouldn't predict it, but man, can you just imagine the scenes, the absolute scenes if Dustin Poirte jumps to gilly and submits Islam Makachev and just replaces Michael Bisping for like the greatest feel good surprise shock moment of all time? That would just be the most incredible thing I've ever seen.

Yeah. Chad, three, that's what Sheehan's number is. Do you give it that high or no? No, no, not at all. One out of 10 might even feel a little generous. Like you would almost certainly lose, but that's why they fight the fights. And think about how fun it would be. Maybe Islam's a kind of guy who can read the lay of the land and be like, you know what?

He needs this more. I'm already defeated. I can't hold on to the Habib undefeated resume. I'd get an immediate rematch certainly, or Dustin would retire on top and then I just get to get the belt back my next fight. Maybe I'll just leave my neck out there a little bit. Let him jump the gilly. I know he wants to do it. Maybe I'll just, I will generously give him this to fete him as the great last moment of a good man's career.

Probably unlikely. Like I would say, that seems unlikely to happen. But you never know. We should watch the fight. It's not the, I saw somebody else earlier posted this or put the question up. And I don't know if they put money behind it. So I don't know if Casey has a poll. but who is the most meritocratic opponent for Islam?

And it's obviously not Dustin. Dustin just lost the Gachi. But the way this timeline works out, it does seem like this makes the most sense. No one will complain about it. If Gachi beats Max, Gachi can get next afterwards and that's fine. And this would at least, even if he goes in and loses,

which he almost certainly will, it would still be a feel-good story that he got one more crack at the belt. He got to jump the gilly one more time and see if it worked when it never will. It would just be great. I hope we end up getting it. And honestly, I hope he does it. I'm about a big of Islam fan as there is in the world, but it would just be too cool not to have something like that happen if we could manifest it. So add this to the list of things we're hoping for in 24, right behind John Jones grows a set and decides to actually fight against real people instead of retired firefighters.

Is there a way, can we propose to set up a meeting between Islamachachef and Nico Price? Can we get these two gentlemen in the room and have Nico Price talk to this man about, hey, you remember when I lost to Robbie Lawler and it was really cool and everybody sort of just really appreciated it? I'm sure he's gotten a lot of positive feedback from that experience. Can we set up some sort of meeting between these two gentlemen? Maybe Nico Price can convince him of this because this moment, I feel like we deserve this moment as an MMA fan base.

See, here's what I respect about you, Shaheen. That's the angle you come at this from, whereas I'm like, can we spike his IV bag with something bad that's just going to like make him sluggish for the fight? you know like i was going much more nefarious than you were uh so i love that i love this idea of let's let's do it in a positive manner instead of poisoning lightweight champion well you know i feel like that's that's that's the diamond dynamic between us i'm the good angel on mike hex shoulder you're the bad angel and but we we come together the three of us and we

create gold we create great ideas that we can then take forth into the world and put into action you know Maybe Nico Price holds the poison and he makes the decision Based on his conversation with Islam I don't know Let Nico listen Here's what we should do We should allow Porre to cheat as much as he wants in the fight Like he just

He's that legend status And so he's allowed to cheat And Islam gets repro I know everyone's allowed to cheat There are no actual rules because the referees are unilaterally terrible But Dustin doesn't even get warnings. It's just like, yeah, oh, just keep kicking them low. It's fine. And let's see if Islam can fight the handicapped and win, you know? No, no, no, I this is, you've just, you've got me

working now. Like, do we have stumbled upon something? This is how we, this is how we create. This is creative process, boys and girls. Let's just say we own the UFC for, for a week here. One of the first rule changes, maybe we enact, you get every, like, I don't know what the, what the number would be. Maybe every 10 fights that you have banked, you get a little bit more of an allowance, right? You get a little bit more leeway. So if you're like Jim Miller over here,

Jim Miller can just fall on, I gouge you, he can just soccer kick you, he can do whatever he wants because he's Jim F and Miller. But like Dustin Poir is not quite there, but he's put in his time. He's invested in this, right? You're investing in your future. Dustin Poet is invested in his future.

I feel like this all comes back now. like he can absolutely get into this title shot. And what? What kind of leeway do we give him? We give him five fouls. We give him maybe soccer kicks. Like I feel, no,

I got it. Parker kicks won't matter because Islam will grounded knees to the head. We give him to the wheel. Put it on a wheel, spin the wheel. You spin a wheel, whatever it lands on.

That's the advantage for he gets. The wheel always comes into play. The wheel always gets over. Still think Islam wins. but it will be more fun right how much more fun would that be i mean i again i'm always for all of these ideas like you're the dominant thing just have fun who cares they can't it's not like people are going to stop watching if you go insane with half of your product it's fine maybe like a bag full of splinters oh as we know splinters are the most damaging

Yeah. I like it. I like it. Islam goes, Hey, what's that? God, it's like,

fight's over. Just throw cow trops in the cage. Fuck it. You know? Only on Islam's side, but he has to walk through a selection of cowtrops to get to for you. Just get Dustin like a roll of sandpaper. Can we like he gets one custom weapon after like 25 minutes or at 25 fights.

Dude, no. Dustin just gets to. where the outside of his shorts are sandpaper. So Islam, to wrestle him, we'll have to just be grinding his skin into sandpaper. Oh, this is great. I mean, this is, this is the idea factory right here.

Just pop it off. We need a wealthy investor to just give all of us so much money to be able to enact our dreams here because we'll make the greatest that you've ever seen. You'll have so much fun. Our big gym is sandpaper shorts. That's what we came down to.

Sandpaper shorts. Now pay us money. Has anyone else thought of sandpaper shorts? They sure haven't. This is an original from us. So we could actually, we could do a combo. Turkey, come on. Turkey.

Turkey, come on. You're watching. Hit me up. I'm ready. Let's go. His excellency. Come on. Give us some money here.

So the sandpaper shorts, but also Joseph Hall in the comments with a great idea. Also, maybe a little pocket sand with the sandpaper shorts. I mean, we're really giving Dustin all the advantages. It has to be Tony throwing this. And we want the moment. Wait, it has to be, can, it has to be dust. Maybe Ferguson, Tony Ferguson is the ref. How about that?

And then he could just, you know. Special referee. Special referee, Tony Ferguson. I have always wanted them to do a special referee just to do it because it would be deeply amusing for them. And Connor's reffing this one. Oh, Connor? No. If we're doing guest referee, I just want DC in like that WWE referee outfit that he's sported that one time that really, really.

Oh. DC refing that fight would be super interesting because he's got good relationships with both dudes. Oh, tucked in shorts like all the way up to the belly button. I mean, we can't have D.C. Reff an Islam fight. I'm not for that. He loves Dustin too. I mean, Dustin's his boy. They're Louisiana. Louisiana boys. One of them he sees every fight camp. No, can't do it. Can't do that one. I like all the other ideas. So let's keep working. Let's keep working. Keep throwing it out. Turkey will hit us up. Big Turk coming through. the investment fund and we can make things happen.

Anyone write down sandpaper shorts because I don't want to forget this. I don't want to. I won't forget Sanpaper Shill. We got a whole list. We got a whole list. We have a super chat. But before we go to that super chat,

oh, real quick, before we transition, can you guys think of, because I've been thinking about this all week, just because I've been so impressed with Dustin, especially like the MMA hour interview afterwards, right? Just like sort of how much he has consistently led us inside of his head

over the course of whatever. 10, 15 years. It just been like so vulnerable and so open. I mean, I remember being in Abu Dhabi when he lost to Habib and just that, that press conference that night of him, the post-fight press conference was maybe one of the most vulnerable press conferences I've ever seen in my life. Like, I will never forget that. Can you think of another fighter of this era who has like this type of really just intensely special relationship with the fan base with the fellow fighters, like the community? It feels like Dustin is so universally beloved on like a level. level that very few people actually reach.

I don't know. I mean, he's, yeah, I mean, that's what we were talking about on the ranking spot. So again, go listen to that. But it's even if he is not in your top five lightweights of all time, which I think that that's okay. When we went through it, I had him ranked as the fourth best lightweight of all time based an accomplishment at this point. Even if he's not there, are there four other lightweight.

you whose career you would rather have are there three lightweights whose career you would rather have he is so beloved um it's i mean i honestly i want to stop talking about it because the way this sport works in like five years he'll just come out as just an awful human because it's apparently that we are allowed to have nice things but yeah it's it's astonishing how how much he is connected with fans and how good of a person he is to have also achieved what he has done because those two things do not go hand in hand often in this sport yeah the only other one i can think of was um and i don't think it's to the same degree but i think it's somewhat in the conversation is max holloway i was just going to build that that's that's a good call that's a good max is it and those guys

fought an amazing fight, which was only the second best fight on that card. I mean, I guess you could also argue like Forrest, like previously, like Forrest was very connected with fans and a lot of ways. I was a big, a big known forest for me, but yeah, I got you there. I mean, not connecting to not, not to the extent that Porier Max, I mean, largely because they've had 40 some odd fights or whatever in the UFC, but there have been a couple, but it is a really rarefied air to have achieved kind of where they are popular. Yeah, that's the thing is like the longevity aspect, right?

Because like Forrest, sure, he was like intensely popular and very much that guy for a while, but it didn't last nearly as long as this. Like this has just lasted, oh, like more than a decade at this point. And like the amount of history that we have with Dustin is just, it's intense, man. All right. For sure. I feel like we just retired Dustin. Jeez, the guy still, it's a title fight coming up.

Are you kidding? We're over here trying to handicap. I know. Or handicap Islam for the last. Maybe. You're a Nico pricing him. Hey, Nico. No, you're getting close.

You're getting close to what you're talking. I did, although I did see someone in the comments. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. Shine a spotlight in Islam's eyes throughout the entire fight. Ooh. Give us a laser pointer. It's just making fight one eye. I mean, true champions fight with one eye.

Michael Bisping. So make Islam fight with an eye patch. All right. Moving on. We have a super chat, but I'm going to skip that super chat. It's a great super chat. But I want to talk about this other wonderful fighter that has just left a sport. Can you give some love to Joanne Wood?

She gave years to the UFC. What's your thoughts on her career and favorite moments? Shaheen, you're great at putting this stuff into words. Joanne Wood had her final fight, a victory, over Marina Morose, a hard fought come from behind decision win. Your thoughts, your reflections on the career of Jojo Calderwood, now known as Joanne Wood. I think first of all, if anybody hasn't seen it, you should go look up Casey's YouTube channel because Casey has a tremendous montage or I guess, I don't know how you would want to put it.

Just a little montage highlight rule. Yeah. Yeah. Like a little tribute video. Yeah. From the early, early days. And I think that's like, ultimately like, Joe. She would stand out to me always as someone that in a different timeline where the UFC embraces fun could have probably had such a different type of career because she really did.

Like if she was able to embrace herself fully and sort of who she was early in the career of like wearing the kilt out and just sort of like the gimmicks that she like sort of embodied. Like she was so much fun back then. And the kilt the kilt uniform in particular was just like such a classic. I think that she has a little bit of a different career just in terms of connecting with the fan base and things like that. Like she was very popular and she was always such a sweetheart and she's like the nicest person you've ever met. Like it's just unbelievable how nice she is in person.

But yeah, I just wish that she functioned in a different timeline where the UFC Embrace Fund because I do think we could have had maybe more memories and more moments from her. It's ultimately it sucks that she never really got that opportunity that title opportunity that was hers. And then she just sort of lost by needing money and needing to fight and not being able to sit around and wait, which again is just another brutal reality of this sport.

But awesome nickname, right? Bad mofo Jojo, Dr. Neville. Like all of these are classics. Incredible action fighter. One of the best action fighters from that early set of the women who came into the UFC in particular. Like I remember, what was the tough season that she was on? It was with Carla, Sparza and all the strawways, right?

Yeah. Champion, yeah. Champion, she lost a abortion. She lost a rose in the house. So she ran into Rose Nama Yunus. I mean. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, it's everybody, that's such a legendary season of mine. I was like that was when tough still mattered. So tons of, tons of awesome fun fights from Jojo Calderwood or Jojo Wood, however you want to call her. my quick story about Jojo I was working for Invicta at the time

so this is Invicta what is this like 6 Invicta 3 or whatever like that and she has just had an amazing fight versus Livia von Lettenberg

defeated her and then I was doing backstage interviews and I kind of asked her off camera I was like because she was so nice and so quiet

I was like I was like you say guys why are you doing this like you just don't I'm sorry you just don't seem like the person

that would do this. And she says to me, real quiet, she goes, I'm not a very confident person, but when I fight, I'm a wee bit more. I love the accident work that Casey. That was great. And I was like, I love you, Jojo. Give me a hug. And yeah, she's just one of my favorite people.

And I'm very happy that she's in Vegas. I'm happy her and John Wood, have a great family. and her and her and her son, stepson. And just happy trails, Jojo Codewood. Joe Wood, sorry, happy trails, happy trails. And she gets to go out with a winning record. Yep. Yeah, two fun fights to end her career.

Carolina was a good fight. Miriam Marosa's fun. I think at least since I've met with M.A. fighting, I think what I can't believe I ever asked this to a fighter, but it ended up being one of the big stories coming out of UFC 2. 57 she fights Jessica I and in the corner in between rounds she lets out just the biggest belt you'll ever hear on live television we got to do an interview right after that and I got to ask her about a belch mid-fight which is always fun so yeah happy trails to joanne

wood good for her she never got the title shot but she earned it she got there but as sheen said just kind of the weird thing of the sport did she earn it I'm not trying to shit on her. I think it's okay. And Julie gives her the title fight. Yes. She earned it that night. She did.

She had just lost it. She kicked in. Yeah. I think it's not, like, if she had gotten it, that would have been fine. Yeah, but, again, I think you know. Who was supposed to get a title shot? Okay, okay. Yeah, who was supposed to get a title shot over Jojo at that time?

I don't know. Jennifer Meyer would have been fine. Which I think ultimately is what happened. You just answer your own question. Yeah. So it's like it's all just. So all we did is eliminate a title contender for Jeffchenko.

Yeah. Again, my point is not to shit on Joanne Calderwood and I feel the animosity from the three of you through the screw. Wait, I don't want to, I don't want to shit on Joy and Caldwara, but did she really deserve it?

No, like she got it, but it's not like a travesty that it didn't have. happen through. But what I remember is that she was in the first flyweight fight in the UFC history. Like that's that's meaningful. That's pretty fucking cool. So. And yeah, she's fun fighter. Casey. Yes, sir. Casey, let me ask you because I feel like we're in similar spots here. Like we're at spots where like people who came into this game while we were already doing this job are now leaving this game while we're still doing this job. And it's making me feel pretty weird.

I felt that when Ariel said that on the MMA, we're talking about that, kind of the same thing. We've been in this game so long. We've seen people come into the sport and leave this sport. Have full careers. Start from the prelims, go all the way to the main event,

back down the prelims and then retire. We've seen, it's, I knew this day would kind of come, but I am, it is kind of still kind of shocking to me. That's all. It's just,

I don't like it. We have fighters. Yeah. We're covering fighters now who weren't, who weren't, who were born in this millennium, you know, so it's just weird. But here we are. We're still doing it. Super Chats. $20 super chat.

Damn. 80 more, you could have been on the show, Tanvir, come on. I know, you're so close. How do you guys see the Corey versus Umar fight going? So that is obviously not officially booked, but Umar called for. the rebooking with Corey Sanhagen after his win a couple of weeks ago. Corey has jumped on social media and said, yeah, man, I'll dictate the time. We'll do an international fight week.

Umar responded with semi-location. Be a tremendous fight for June 29th on that card. So if they booked this fight, Jed, how are you seeing it? Who are you picking? I'm picking Umar no Mogamadov. I believe he is the best bantamate in the world. Uh, he can compete with Corey in the striking, though. I wouldn't give the advantage to Corey

with his diversity of strikes, his abilities there on the feet. But mostly, it's going to look like a Nirmagamatov fighting. Granted, a Nirmagamatov fighting who can also chuck the mitts, but it's a Nermigna Madov. He's going to tackle Corey a bunch. He's going to sort of dominate him on the ground.

I feel pretty decent about how that goes down. I mean, T.J. Dillishaw had some success. I think Omar is a better control grappler. Be a great fight. I can't wait for that fight. But I'm going to back Umar until somebody gives me a reason not to. Jeanne. I think gun to my head, I would pick Umar, but I wouldn't pick it with nearly the same confidence that Jed seems to have.

To me, I mean, Corey Sanhagen is the elite of the elite of the elite in this division, right? Like not many people in this division are going to be able to manhandle Corey Sanhagen. I understand the idea of the wrestling. And I think that's probably why I would ultimately side towards Umar, just because I think that's probably his best path to victory and that's something that he can't execute. I don't know though. It wouldn't shock me if it was Corey Sannaghanag.

Dude, he's just so good, man. Do Corey is, like, I'm not going to say anybody's walking over Corey like that. Yeah. I don't know. I'd have to think about that. Like, for a betting perspective, I'm probably betting on Corey

because I'm sure he's going to be a balloon as an underdog. So I would probably bet on Corey, especially if it's like a main card fight during a pay-per-view. But I don't know. man. It's the same reason why I was pretty confident hitting plus money bet on Dustin against Benoit

Santini. Not saying Umar is like the same fighter Benoit is, but experience matters man, big fight experience matters even against an Armaga made off. Now Umar could go in there in 3026 Corey, very possible. But until I see it, I still have

questions about Umar. He's very good but he's got some defensive holes that he needs to shore up or Corey can make it a pretty rough night for him because Corey can hit pretty damn hard when he wants to. So want to see it bad. There is no other fight that should be made right now. And let's go.

Get it done. I just want to say that, Narmergometovs, like of the branch familiarly connected to Abdulmanap, they are a combined 54 and O and MMA. 530 and 1 if you want to know count the no contest. Umar got against Usman, sorry, not Umar,

Usman got against Britain and McGregman, uh, Brent Premis because of the drug test thing, but they ain't lost. They're just not losing. It's an insane stat. It is. But let's see what he does against Cory Sandhagen.

It's a big jump. I mean, I'll tell you what, if he does to Corey Sandig when he's on everybody else, I'm in. He's the best. He would probably rank him number one. Bannon Wade if he does that to Corey Sandoaghan. At some point, they are due for a loss,

but it is fucking wild. I'm going to think about it. I'm going to think about it. The Marab's vallish really disrespect going on right now is outrageous. How are we disrespecting Marab? He didn't fight Corey Sanhagan. Sure.

Marob's not involved in this conversation. I don't have Marab rank number one now. I know, I needed you on the ranking show yesterday. You would have been the only person with O'Malley. Yeah. Oh, you are. I think I've had O'Malley. I've had O'Malley higher than everybody for a long time.

All right. Quick super chat from Matija. There are two Bam Bam fighters this weekend. Jed, I know you love a gimmick parlay. I assume you have a Bam Bam Parlay. going for this Saturday. What am I a rookie? Of course I do.

It's like the first thing I did this week when I was looking at bets. One, I've introduced a new bet every week where I'm just going to bet blindly on whoever I think has the best nickname on the card. Last week, oh God, what was, what's his nickname? Give me a second. It's Osu Amabayev's, but I got to, I have to pull up his nickname. So I'll remember it what it actually is. But it translates to the spine splitter, which is sick.

And I was like, Asu has the best one. Give me one moment as I'm pulling him up. Zulfikar, which as I went down a rabbit hole, is apparently the name of a sword in the Islamic faith of something that translates to spine splitter. And he won. And I think Bam Bam is the coolest nickname on this fight card, though I will also acknowledge there are some pretty good ones. Shout out to Panukyanzad. Bonzi, I think, is the second best fight nickname on the card. And I do think Tai Tui Vasa is the better Bam Bam Bam.

Like if we're being honest, I think that he wears Bam Bam better than Brian Barbarina does, even though I appreciate the alliteration for Brian Babam Barbaran. But obviously we part laid them up because one of my rube. Of course I'm doing that. All right. Also, I gave you a wrong stat about Nirmagamatovs because there's 17 and 0, 17, 0 and 1 and 29. and 0. So that's what, 34 plus 29 is what, what's that?

60 something? 63. So I actually sold them short. That is insane. Too late now. Too late now. 63.0 and 1-0 contest. Good. God. We got time for a couple more gentlemen.

Chase, thank you. For the love of God, I hope the UFC doesn't bring Belal back to my It's tape. I'll tell you. Buddy, buckle up. Yeah, I'm sorry. You might be unhappy. Buckle up.

You better hope that they're going to Brazil with that fight for some reason because buckle up. There are two people. I'll tell you who would be very happy if Leon and Ballal headline that card. It would be Jorge Mazadol, Nate Diaz, and anybody else that is a part of having any vested interest into that June 1st event in Los Angeles. Because if that's the main event, I don't think it's going to do gangbusters on pay-per-view,

Diaz Moss at all, but I think it does a lot better than if it's Islam versus Dustin on that card instead. Then they're toast. But I think if you're those guys, you are hoping it's Leon versus Bilal headlining that card. I'm sorry, Chase. You will get Leon Belal with Juliana versus Raquel Penningson

co-main event, and you will like it. Oh, my God. That was cruel. that was just mean why are you in such a bad move today? I'm just being honest. You will like this. And you would like it.

Chase, Chase Turner contributed $499 to our super chat and you attack him like that. Chase is the thing that I love you as I love you as a person, as a man, as a fellow human being on this world. I appreciate your support, but I need you to prepare yourself

for what you're probably getting because that's probably it. Also, it just sucks, Chase, because you would be like, oh, they're coming to Jersey twice in the span of a couple of months. At Atlantic City card is one of the worst fight night cards in recent memory on paper. And 302 is probably not going to be great. Jersey is getting the fallout from everything else. Very Jersey. Thank you.

Shout out, Jersey. We love you. Have you guys looked at that Atlantic City fight card? Who? Tough hang. Is Atlantic City the apex of the East Coast? I mean, this would be like a solid apex card. Hold on.

I'm looking at this now. This isn't like we've had some bad, bad cards. This is, this is no, we've had bad apex cards. You got to put them in their buckets. This would be a solid to good apex card. This is a pretty bad. fight that card. Dude, the apex has ruined your memory

because they used to take bad cars like this on the road all the time. But now they don't. You know, a lot of things used to happen. The thing about the old days is, Sean, they, the old days. Yeah. We already discussed how old we are.

This card will instantly be better just with the crowd. And you know, you got some Nate Landware on there. You got Vicente Lucke Buckley. That's good. Chris Wybman might have a moment. That's a brew and silver fight. A moment.

You think he's going to have a moment? He can have a sad moment. You know, sometimes you try to hope for the best and prepare yourself for the worst, you know? Joseph Paul is saying New Jersey needs to prepare to eat their leafy greens. They do. They do, buddy. Into the meal. Get that salad down.

That's it. That card's a colonic. Yeah, it just cleans you out. Very healthy, but. I mean, high in fiber. High and fiber. Mickey Gall and Basil half is already booked on the 302. Jesus.

That car's going to be a tough hang, buddy. I'm sorry. All right. A couple more. Did you introduce the farting yet to people? No, I haven't. You can do that. I mean, it is largely your baby.

It's okay. We'll table it then. I would be curious how the fart system applies to this one, but we can table it. The what system? It's the fart system. We've created a new system for judging events. Fights above replacement tussles.

Like war and baseball only for fights. But since we're largely using it to talk about bad cards like the apex cards, it's the fart system. For instance, just kind of offhandedly looking at UFC. It's thrown in there. Because we came up with this yesterday. Tuttles. There's not a lot of words for a fight.

Start with a T, okay. You're trying to find a word, a T word to make it fart. Oh, so funny. Fights up on replacement. Tussles. This is pretty low fart score for two-vah. Tiberas, as you can imagine. Or a high fart score.

I'm not really sure how we want to couch it. How many toots does this card get? I'm just saying a lot of replacement level fights on this week's fight card. How many above average fights, you know? This week? I'm not sure where to go. Technically, we're probably supposed to call Panny Kanz at Macy Chase on. I think that's two ranked fighters.

Probably supposed to call that above a replacement fight, but spiritually. Chandler is a ranked fighter too. again spiritually is that above a replacement level fight though I don't know this is a low fart index for Vegas 88 boys we are children this is the best that might be the best she and I had five minutes yesterday where we were just talking through this it's great oh my god unbelievable do you have anything else or are we good I mean I don't know how we can do better. I mean,

uh, no, no, we're talking about the fart system. Yeah. The S is for us. That's the S. Yeah.

Farts. Yeah. Sorry. It's above replacement tussle system. Um, I think, I just, I just want to put this out here right now.

Don Davis, we can find a way to get this information plugged into the smart cage. if you want advanced analytics like farts to be involved. Oh, the fart cage. The fart cage. Oh, God. This is.

Hit the music. I have your best job. I mean, what a graphic that would be to talk about indexes and comparing cards. Miles per hour and farts. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Oh, my God.

Wow. What an audible we have called, ladies and gentlemen. but we'll be back next week and I guess we'll recap UFC Vegas 88 and get you ready for UFC Vegas 89 Rose W Davis also low fart in the next car

That's going to be a tough Arguably lower Yeah that's a tough one for Shaheen Casey for Jen I am Mike Hack The iconic voice takes you home back next week Good night everybody Love y'all

This has been between the links and MMA fighting production on the Vox Media Network.