MMA Fighting - BTL | Reaction To Ian Machado Garry Out Of UFC 296, Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington | Fan Q&A Edition

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

With UFC 296 just a few days away, the storylines are aplenty heading into the UFC's final fight card of the year, including the welterweight championship main event between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington. Where does Edwards go with a win? Where does the division go if Covington claims his first undisputed championship? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, it's a special fan Q&A edition as MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew discuss the potential fallout of Saturday's championship headliner. Additionally, the panel will answer questions such as Ian Machado Garry being scratched from his matchup with Vicente Luque due to illness, Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett, Belal Muhammad serving as the backup fighter for the main event and what that means, Shavkat Rakhmonov looking to keep his incredible undefeated run alive against Stephen Thompson, Jake Paul vs. Andre August having absolutely no buzz at all, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian 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. From 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, everybody. A lot going on. I am on the road here in not so sunny Florida. It's kind of sunny, but not incredibly sunny. But we deal with whatever we get to deal with here for the Jake Paul Andre Agus fight, which goes down tomorrow. I actually got to see the iconic voice yesterday in person, which is very cool. But this is going to be a fun edition. This is not your normal BTL. There's just so much happening right now. We're starting a little bit early today. We're going to do a special Q&A edition. We try to do this once a month and it just so happens. This is the month to do it. So thank you for joining us and joining me to answer your questions

about UFC 296 and much more. Mr. No Gray area. Mr. Hot Take, the cannonball kid himself, Mr. Jedbushu. Jed, how are we doing on this Thursday? I'm doing great. One, this isn't just the month to do. I mean, this is, this is the week to do it. So many things to talk about, Mike. And of course, that's, You can see, that's three stars, baby. The full-bore Mushulen star system. This weekend's going to be great. Let's get into it.

Yes. We are, of course, going to answer your questions. I'm sure you have a lot of them surrounding UFC 296. But before we get to that, we haven't had the chance, really, as a website, to react to the big news from last night. Chale P. Sunnin goes on YouTube and puts out a quick video that was titled Ian Gary out of UFC 296. He didn't really get into too much specifics about it. And then a couple of hours later, UFC CEO Dana White, he takes the social media. He announces that the rumors are in fact true.

I actually believe Jesse on fire on YouTube was the first to break this news, or at least put this out there. So credit to him, Chale kind of escalated it with his video, and then Dana confirms it. And Jed is a guy who did a reaction pod with the Prince of Positivity, A.K. Lee, about Ian Machado, Gary, not showing up to the UFC 296 Media Day. What was your reaction to this? A couple of hours later, Ian Machado, Gary, off the card. And as of right now, Vicente Lucke is also off the card. But who knows that that changes?

Well, one, I was disappointed because, you know, we scrambled together a ReactPod. And we were clear, like, this was all speculation. We don't really know why he's not showing up. But it seemed certainly everyone had the same thought, even if that didn't end up being what actually happened. So that was a bummer. And then it mostly was a bummer because when I started thinking about it, like we went through this whole reaction pot that I don't know if we left up or not.

I honestly don't know how we handled that. As we talked through it, you know, AK and I were just kind of trying to solve. They're like, all right, well, why would he skip media day? Like if he's not going because of the surrounding circumstances of this week, it'd make more sense to skip the presser than the media day because, I mean, you know, God love all our friends and compatriots. It's not like MMA media is the most stringent and difficult group of people to field questions from, you know, whereas at the presser, there will be the whole other group of humans around. So I was like, why would he skip this? And then as we talked through, I was like, because this is a genius move.

Because by skipping media day, what Ian Gary has done is he's made himself the talk of this event, already. And then tomorrow at the press conference, all the conversation is going to circle around him. And Colby Covington's going to be up there, calling him all sorts of a beta soy boy, can't handle it. And Leon, who he already kind of has a little bit of heat with because of the gym stuff, Leon might even take a few shots. And then if he becomes the talk of the presser, and then he goes out and he beats Lucke, suddenly Ian Gary's in pole position to be the next guy for the welterweight title because of all this heat. And then none of that was true. And he has the flu. So it was a real bummer. I went through a whole event that just ended up being

useless. And it's a bummer because this is a good fight. I was pretty, I was pretty interested in this fight. I mean, fortunately, of all the cards to lose kind of high quality fights, this is the one. Like there are just a ton of them still waiting in the wings to step up. But yeah, it's a bummer. Yeah, it's definitely a bummer. This one probably had more storyline than the freaking main event. with everything going on with Ian but it started with the flu according to Dana White and then it kind of morphed into pneumonia pneumonia sucks you certainly can't fight with it

it's super contagious chale was talking about maybe Ian's child was dealing with symptoms as well so I know a lot of people are going to give Ian a whole bunch of crap for this but I mean if he's got pneumonia what do you expect him to do he's not going to be able to fight so as of right now no opponent for Vicente Lucke although Vicente Lucke getting a little bit loud

right now. Called out Kevin Holland on Instagram. Kevin took the social media himself with the phone emoji. You know how Kevin Holland is. I did speak to his manager, about 30 minutes ago, Oran Hodec, the great Orrin Hodec of Kio reps. And he said, they did ask the UFC. As soon as they found out Ian was out, they, he, they're, excuse me, Kevin, his manager,

the team, they reached out to Hunter Campbell to try to secure this fight. As of now, nothing has been said. but then Lucay kind of sprinkled on a little bit, let's do it. I know Lucay's manager, Ali Abdulaziz, tweeted out, let's go 180 pounds. So maybe they do it at 180. Who knows?

Are you okay with Kevin Holland stepping in? Or would you prefer they just push this one back? What do you think? No. No, because the fight between Ian Gary and Vicente, Lucke, it made sense and it's a good fight, right? Like both of these dudes are just very exciting. They're both kind of top 12-ish,

or wait somewhere in that area. It makes sense for you and Gary to get this step up in competition as a launching pad to a top five sort of opponent. And it makes sense for Lucke as like, all right, I got to hold my position against this young hungry dude and then maybe I can get back in the mix. Like it fit a lot of narratives. And so it was a good fight. It made sense.

But it's not like, oh, this is the only fight that we can do. Like, you put Vicente Lucke in there with anybody and it's going to be gangbusters. And so Kevin Holland, like, that's, I don't even, I don't know why that's not made. like this should have already been solved as soon as it was essentially put out into the world and both guys were like down there's no reason because you know Kevin Holland's always down to clown and Vicente Lucay's you know John Adam just like all right well this is one of those fights that should be able to be made within 20 minutes I'm just being like hey Kevin you want to do this all right what's the number great set get on a plane get out here let's go and I think that probably ultimately

is what will happen it just makes a ton of sense And it's awesome because let's just let Luke A fight. We don't have to hold him for Gary. Gary can fight somebody else, you know, a month from now down the line because there are plenty of other options in that regard as well. Yeah, I don't know if Kevin's in Vegas. I probably should ask that, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was because a card like this, usually you get half the roster out there anyways,

at least attending it. So we'll see if it happens. Maybe Dana will. If he's not, it's a short flight away, you know? Yeah, he can get there. And he would do it. He would do it and he'd be rewarded somewhat handsomely for it. And Kevin fights for money as a prize fighter.

So that would be fun. We'll see if that actually pans out. But yes, tough, tough one. That was a fight I was really looking forward to. But it is what it is. I think you're probably right here of all the fights we could lose. This is probably the one that stings the least. I know it hurts from a storyline perspective,

but as far as like a fight perspective goes, Like if we lost Tony versus Patty, yeah, if we lost Tony versus Patty, I think it'd be a lot more damaging. But man, this is a tough, tough loss. And hopefully it feels better. I don't think it would be damaging to lose anything, though. Like this card is so. It's really good. As long as the two title fights stay.

And even if you lost the co-main event, even though I think the co-made event is like a more interesting fight in a lot of ways in the main event, if the top two fights stay, the rest of this card is so deep that like losing one or even another fight this weekend is fine. Like they don't have to rebook, like they don't have to rebook Lucke. They could just give them a little money and be like, hey, we're going to rerun this fight a month from now. That would also be fine. And you can just be like, all right, Josh, I'm at Bryce Mitchell. You're up on the main card. No one's going to be upset. Like, this card is incredibly deep.

And so of all the fight cards to suffer losses, this is kind of one that's going to do it the best this year. That is true. All right. Well, Cody Garberant, Brian Keller can get elevated to the main card too. He's super easy. former Bantamway champion Cody Garbrandt like yeah there's a lot we could do here so we'll see what happens we'll bring in E.KC. Linen I kind of want that Kevin Holland fight now though I mean you just start talking about it it's like okay that's a banger yeah I'll tell you what that is

as a certified banger let's make that happen I'm down for that you can go and fight Sean Brady in two months or something like that that's how we can solve this yeah that may be where he ends up going if they put Lou Ge in there with Holland. So all right. Let's bring Casey in. Time to take your questions. Hi, Casey. How are we doing?

Hi. Hi, Jeff. Got the bachelor pad all the self right now. Look at this guy. He's got sleeves on. It's, what a life.

Yeah. It's getting cold in California. Is that where the sleeves are out? I know. Yes. Oh, my God. What is it like 72? Oh, boy.

Oh, put a jacket on. Get a heater on. Get the fire going. Throw some marshmallows. All right. All right. All right, questions. Here we go.

As you can imagine, the comment section looks just great. And just getting ripped the shreds here. It's a lot of very reasonable people responding to things. It just reminds me I forget how much. I'm honestly, I'm just disappointed at an MMA fan. I was just saying.

I'm just disappointed. I know I shouldn't have my expectations anywhere, but like, why do you guys hate fighters so much? They just hate fighters. Like, when you give... And women. And women. And women.

Yeah, they're just, yeah, women and fighters. It's like, come on, be better, be better. Boating 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

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Oops. All right, Joe D. Can you see Colby wrestling? Can you see Colby wrestling Leon for five rounds and win with that? I'm going to just put it out there into the universe, Jed. I listened to No Bet Spard. I had a traffic-filled drive from the Jake Paul, Andre August Press Conference, back to my parents' house from staying right now.

I listened to Obetzbarred. wonderful program. You inspired me in lots of ways because of the watch party. I do play some bets. And I will say this. I have a bet on Colby Covington by decision at plus 250. I'm not thrilled about it. I don't feel confident in it,

but I feel like this fight is a little bit closer than a lot of people are giving it credit for. It is not out of the realm of possibility for Colby to wrestle Leon for five rounds and get a win. And let's be clear, if Colby wins this fight, he's got a win by decision. So I do have a little bit of a value sprinkle on Colby by decision. Again, I'm not overly confident about it. I know you're very confidently on Edwards-Swince's fight, although you won't be completely shocked if Colby is able to win. But if Colby does Colby things, here's the thing for me, Jed.

The first seven minutes of this fight are going to tell me a lot. If Colby comes out kind of static and plays the, well, let's see what Kamar, like in the second Kamar Us would fight. He got cooking in round three. and then he won the rest of the fight. But it took him like two and a half rounds to do anything. And that obviously hurt him in the fight. But if he comes out and can win the first round,

maybe get some momentum heading into round three, this is a completely different fight. This changes everything. So do you see a world where if Colby gets off to a good start, that Leon Edwards betters are like, uh-oh, this is not good? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's like super possible.

My confidence in Leon is that I don't want Colby, to win, and so I'm manifesting this. And I like in general do think that this fight favors him for a number of pretty obvious reasons. One, Leon is a pretty good defensive wrestler. I mean, Kamar Usman, who is

a different kind of wrestler than Colby Covington is, but I think people would largely say a superior wrestler to Colby did not have a ton of success in the second fight with Leon. And the first fight he obviously did, and I think if Colby's going to win,

looks a lot like the Usman-Leon fight won just without the head kick at the end, right? Like it is pressure and pace and he gets positions and he gets those takedowns. It won't stun me if he can do this. Kobe Covington is a very, very good wrestler and a cardio machine. But Leon had made adjustments in that second fight with Usman. Usman still scored some takedowns, but he was able to hold position far less than he was before. And most of the takedowns got stuffed. statistically, Ustman and Colby are pretty much identical in their takedown success rates.

And again, I think Leon is going to fare better against this, particularly the style Colby wrestles with because Usman is a much better control grappler than Colby is. So Colby gets takedowns, but he's kind of often lets people up or people just get up and then he takes him back down again. And it's sort of that cardio exhaustion strategy. Not sure how well that plays against Leon, who's already proven to be quite good at getting up. So stylistically, I do think that Leon is favored here, but it was two fights ago that Leon got controlled on the ground for most of the fight. And I know that the narrative got shifted

entirely with the head kick, and maybe that's just. But there was a reason that John Annick and Joe Rogan and everyone were writing Leon off. Like, he looked mentally broken and defeated by, because he was. He had been sort of smushed for the last 15 minutes before that. And, pulled out a miracle highlight. And so I think it would be dumb to be like, Kobe can't win this because there is a clear path and it's a path that sort of aligns with how he normally gets his business done.

I'm just not sure particularly. Here's the other thing, Mike. Here's arguably the biggest single thing about this. Kobe hasn't fought in two years. It's not quite two years, but it's March of 2022 or whatever. Like it's well over 18. months since he has last competed.

That is so long to be off. And he is not a spring chicken. He's 35 pushing 36. We've all seen the stats about being 35 and up and weight classes below 170 and success rate. There are just a lot of outside factors that make me really think that Leon should win this. But again, can't be stunned if he loses.

The fallout of this fight is going to be super interesting. And I don't know if there's a question about that here. I mean, a lot of people feel like if Colby loses, like, maybe he retires. Because like what else is there for him? He goes, oh and three in undisputed title fights. I think he would become the first fighter in UFC history to accomplish that feat. And I wouldn't even say accomplish that. No, your eye favor had to have done that, didn't he?

I think Joe B. 0 and 3? I mean, Joe B definitely did because Joe B went 0 for 2 on. Jobi technically went 0 for 4 because he missed twice against DJ lost against Figgie when Figgie couldn't win the belt and then lost against Figgie when Figgie won the belt Ah, that's a good point. That's a good point.

So Joe B definitely, but I feel like your eye have fought three times for the UFC or maybe one of those was an interim though. It was interim. Henan Brough, right? Ingram Barrow, right? You're right. You're right. Yeah. And then he also went lost several for the WEC. Basically, that's not a list you want to be on is going 0 and 3 in undisputed title fights.

That's a tough one. That's a tough one, and it's really tough to come back from. It's not a good list. Yeah, do you think he retires? I mean, I could understand it. I just feel like he'll just try and stick around and get money fights. I feel like he's retired now. I mean, I don't feel like he's a real fighter now.

I feel like he's just a celebrity fighter they put him to sell pay reviews. If he can sell paper views, they'll put him, he'll be back at the top. I don't know. That's why this fight's even being made. I mean, you could do the Mazdaal fight again. You could do Porre, I guess, to like settle that beef. I think Forre just has no interest in that is what it sort of seems like. So, I mean, maybe.

I feel like it might stick around one or two more because hell, I thought he was going to, like, leave Welterweight after losing Usman the second time. It's like, yeah, you should just try and go up to middleweight and pick him. a fight with Sean Shickland or whoever. So I think he'll probably stick around, but Casey's sort of right. It's not like he's the most active dude in the world anyway. What if Leone, what if Colby wins? I'm not even talking about it from the Colby side because things are just going to get

super weird if Colby wins. What if Leon? Just on the Leon side, if Colby wins the belt and Leon is no longer the champion, where does he go? I mean, it's kind of like how much work will he have to do to get back to a title shot? because it took him it took him a long time, Casey, to even get that shot to begin with.

So what happens if Leon loses the belt on Saturday? Where does he go? I just think two wins. Maybe fight Bilal. That's right. It's right there. Leon Belaw. It's tough for Belaw, man.

This is... Oh, no. It's absolutely tougher Bilal. I mean... Blah screwed. Either way. I... I think

if Colby wins, I don't think he's getting a title shot. But if Leon wins, I think he might get it. If Leon wins in Shafcott either doesn't win impressively or

the winner of Shafcott Wonderboy is too hurt, like to do a timeline. I just, I think I was having this conversation with somebody on Twitter yesterday. Ballal's only getting a title fight if they have no other options.

Like, that's just it. If they go to Manchester, first half of 2024, which Dana did an interview at TNT Sports and he basically said he wants to tap into some of these other markets besides London. If they can book something in Manchester and I heard Pizzie Carroll talk about,

they're building a brand new arena in Manchester that seats over 20,000 people. It's going to open in April. If they can bring a car to Manchester and Leon headlines, it doesn't really matter who he fights. If Bala is ready, they can do that. There are Tommy Aspenol in that card

to defend the interim title if you do that. Like, I think Belaw has the best chance. But honestly, I think, I mean, it really, the being available is going to be Bilal's best friend here, especially if Leon wins. If Colby wins, boy, it might be a tough. It's not going to matter. It might be tough. Yeah. Remind me the history.

How did Leon get the title shot? And how did Leon get the title shot? What was the kind of the storyline? Was there someone, was he like notice? Was there someone just? No, there, he had done a lot. Usman had kind of called him out. And then at that point, there was just nothing else that was really going on for Usman

because we had all assumed that it was going to be Hamzat, right? Like, wasn't that, was that sort of where it was going? But then that kind of just never ended up happening. And so it was like, all right, let's do Leon. Yeah. I mean, it just got to the point where it's just, all right, let's just do the damn thing. They were going to Salt Lake City. You know what I mean?

I'm just kind of flashbacks. Because when we talk about Belaw getting a title shot, well, nothing else is there. So he'll get a title shot. I kind of, I feel like I'm back at the Leon kind of the same thing. Dude, it's exactly the same. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, he's, it's the same. He deserves.

I'm not here to talk about. He obviously deserves the shot. But he's only going to get it if Leon, like if circumstances roll out the same way. And that was my whole thing with Leon and his sort of approach to this. It's like, okay, it can work for you. Like, that has work. at a period of time. Like honestly, Tyrone Woodley

sort of had the same thing happen in his title fight like when he fought Robbie Lawler, which was weird because he was on the shelf for 18 months or something. But historically, it's just not the safest way to go about things and you things have to break her well for you. And so like, I think Ballal's

going to have to fight somebody else. We shall see. I mean, because here's the thing. That would depend on timeline, certainly. If they do go to London, then maybe Ballal just sneaks in there. But if Schofcott wins, he's definitely, I think he has taken pole position if he beat Stephen Thompson impressively, even though maybe that's not meritocratic or whatever.

And then, like, I don't know, Jack Della's fighting Gilbert Burns in February or whatever. If he shows out against Gilbert Burns, like, what, Ballal is he's going to have to make a compelling reason to get that title fight real soon. So that fight, like, I know it was reported. I know that's what Jack's team wants, but that fight's not done or even really close to being done. Tell that to tapology because they have it listed. Well, it's trust.

As we tell you all the time, the golden rule, it's on MAAfighting.com, it ain't a thing. I trust topologies. They're good people. It's a great website. It is a great website. It's a good website. It's a good website. Yeah. So this is kind of interesting, too, because Leon said some interesting things.

Who besides Colby does the UFC actually want as Walterway champion? So Leon believes the UFC is rooting for Colby. I don't think that's, I don't know if they're like straight rooting for him. I don't know. Leon's, they're tapping into what like a big market right now. I know the London thing kind of lost a little bit of momentum because the ticket prices went up but it's just the same arena over and over again. So I think it lost a little bit of its luster.

But Dana telling TNT sports, they want to go to different places in the UK and in Europe, I think they kind of, this works better if Leon is the champion, does it not? So do you think the UFC is rooting for Colby to win this fight? And if not, like, if Dana and the Brass had their druthers, like who is their ideal welterweight champion right now?

I think that this is good matchmaking and from the UFC standpoint. point of they don't actually care who wins, which is not what happens all the time. I kind of, that's sort of one of my big pet peeves with their matchmake is like sometimes they're very clear they are in the corner of somebody. Like they have set it up where one win is much better than the other. I think in this one it's fine. Both come with complications, both come with benefits.

I think if Leon stays your World War II Champion, it's all the stuff you said. He is, you know, you now have two British champions. That's pretty useful for them. and Leon is starting to maybe gets a bump by beating Colby as well. So maybe he starts becoming something that's a little bit more marketable outside of England. If Colby wins, look, he's going to be a nightmare to deal with his champion. That is just how that will be. But they, he is marketable.

People tune into him. He drives interest for good or ill. And so I think that this is kind of one of those situations where it, they're okay with it. But who wins will really dictate what comes next for their plan. And so that's like that that is why I am interested in this fight. Not for the fight itself though. It's somewhat interesting.

But the after effects of this are going to be wild because it's a huge range of outcomes here. Right. Like Chavkat, I still think has the inside track. But Chavcott is not the most marketable individual from a talking. on a microphone standpoint if you've heard him at all this week. But, you know, he's, hey, he can just be the silent dude and the funny hat who absolutely obliterates everyone he fights. And that won't be the worst thing.

I think if they had their druthers, Hamzot would have been their World Trey champion. But, you know, babies thrown out on the bathwater with that one. Hamzat's up in middleweight now. So I think it's fine either way for them. Yeah, I'm with you on that. This is not Sean O'Malley versus Algeman and Sterling. yeah no they they don't have a side that they cared that much more if i had to guess i would say that they would slightly prefer leon over colby to win this just because leon is easier for them to

deal with because i'm relatively certain that if colby becomes champion he is going to do nothing but try to fight connor mcgregor but isn't that whether you see wants i don't do they i honestly have no idea if they want that. I mean, I don't want it. Obviously, as far as like selling tickets and pay-per-views, isn't that exactly what UFC wants? I don't know because I think Connor's going to sell pay-per-views anyway, and having Connor lose again is probably not ideal. All right. What else we got? Joseph asked, can Wonderboy secure a title shot on this card? So, look, of all the weird things that could happen here, Wonderboy beat Schofgathev got Rachmanoff. And look, I know a lot of people think it's impossible. The betting lines, I think Shopcott's the biggest favorite on the card by a pretty

healthy number. But if Wonderboy could somehow go, people forget like Wonder Boy, once he gets taken down is not great. But it's not thoroughly easy to take him down. He does have pretty underrated take down defense, although Gilbert Burns and Blah Mohamed didn't seem to think so. But if somehow It's getting worse, the older he's getting. For sure. But if somehow, because Shafcott's been saying, you know what dude i'm just going to stand with you like i don't have to take you down i'll just i'll just stand there wonder boy doesn't believe him so he's not really prepared for a straight stand-up battle but jett if stephen wonder boy thompson at 40 years of age about to turn 41 in february if he goes out there and beat shafkaaacov does he get his his day in court here does he get his

one last opportunity to fight for undisputed gold well then he would join the ranks of dudes who have lost three undisputed title shots Well, he would only lose two because he has a draw. Yeah, but if you're the challenger, that's a loss. If you don't win the belt, you lose. That's my, I view draws as wins for champions because they keep the belt, so it's a friggin' dub. Yeah, I, it wouldn't stun me. I would still lean no, but the people who out there are like, no, he lost to ball all.

Bull Hall would be ahead of him. I wouldn't bet on that. I wouldn't feel real confident about that. It's like, because he's number six in their rankings. He beats Chavcott. He's looking at the ranks right now. He'll move up to five. Two good wins.

They like him. You know, I wouldn't even be that upset with it. Would it be, would it be righteous? No, it would not be righteous. But I'm kind of okay with like letting old dudes get one last title shot, even if we sort of have to squint our eyes. and kind of turn the other way on how they get it. Because, like, I was fine with Dan Henderson fighting Michael Bisping.

I know everyone, yeah. I know a lot of people hated that, but I was like super on board at the time. I was like, well, one, this is who cares? Like, who, like, yes, we all know Michael Bisping would lose to Joel Romero or Robert Whitaker. We are all aware of this, but it's fine. It's okay. So I would be okay with Stephen Thompson getting it. I'd still lean to think he won't, though.

Yeah, that'd be sure. Man, imagine be Bilal Muhammad, Leon, or Wonder Boy goes out and beat Shafcott, and then he gets the shot and Bilal doesn't after Bilal basically like 30, 25 to him. Oh, man, that'd be tough. If Leon wins, right, like Colby might actually fight Wonderboy. If he could, like, that actually might be a fight that he would accept. Be like, yeah, I'll just take it down. It's fine. and Leon would probably I think if you were like hey Leon I know you're going to talk about going up to middleweight

that's real dumb and not going to happen so just shush it with that here are your options you can fight Belal or you can fight Wonder Boy feel like he would choose Wonder Boy in that scenario so yeah

could happen I see a path I see a path yeah it's not right it's not right but it can happen Wonder Boy is pretty popular too, man. He does numbers.

He does numbers. People like them. YouTube channel has been consistently growing. And do you see actually promoted Wonderboy, his story and this, you know, being 40 and stuff. I think there's a real storyline there, especially if he, um, honestly of the main card fights, I'm pretty, I think, oh, man, I forget, would Wonderboy be the biggest, or maybe it was Tony Ferguson? Who would be the biggest kind of like, no way they won that fight? on the main card.

It's Wonderboy. It's definitely Wonderboy. Over Tony. Okay, cool. Oh, for sure. For sure. I don't know, man. I don't know.

I feel like public perception, it's definitely Wonderboy. Well, public perception, it's Wonderboy and odds-wise, it's Wonderboy. I straight up, I will be far more surprised if Tony Ferguson beats Patty Pimbled, then I will be if Wonder Boy wins, particularly if Shropcott does choose to stand with him. Like, here's the list of people who have won striking battles with Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, Anthony Pettis, in a fight he was absolutely losing. Losing. Until the sick, I was at that fight as Nashville, the sick cage Superman punch.

Trying to think of. You could argue that Tyrone Woodley really won the striking battle with Wonderboy, considering he almost decapitated him like four times. But that's what a serious threat of takedown. So yeah, I know you may know. That's it. That's it. I mean, I know technically Darren Till won, but I watched that fight and he did not.

So yeah, that's the list of people who have won striking contests that I call. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm forgetting something there. It's like Kevin Holland learned that lesson. Like, hey, we all thought Kevin Holland would shoot. He didn't and he got tuned up. If Shafcott really doesn't shoot, it won't shock me if Stephen Thompson is just like real weird and awkward. Does Shafcott ever shoot on Jeff Nell? I don't recall.

He pretty much got in the fire with him. He fought Jeff Nill the toughest way possible and still came out on top. So, yeah, I completely expect Shopcott to stand up Wonderboy. He shot four times against Jeff. Oh, he did. Oh, okay. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe.

I mean, yeah, I don't suspect that he will take that tack. But if he does, Tom Wonder Boy is a great chance. And I wouldn't, again, just wouldn't be all. the way shocked if it happened. But Tony Ferguson, I'm very sorry for y'all. And I hope for the millions of Tony fans that this doesn't go this way. But I explain this on No Bet's Bar to our wonderful people.

I've lived this before. I was that guy. I was the man who just, BJ's still showing something. There's still a reason to believe. BJ's going to win this one. Dennis Siever, Dennis Seaver is just not very good.

BJ can get it done. Ryan Hall, Ryan Hall's a grappler. He can't strike at all. BJ has incredible takedown defense. He's just going to keep it on the feet and box with him. Like it's Clay Guida. Clay Guida is also old and has to take people down. And BJ's so good at that.

I just did this. I lived this life. I'm there for you guys. I understand how sad it is. It's just not going to happen for Tony, man. Yeah, I do have a bet. When you lose six fights in a row, you don't suddenly win one. It's not how it goes.

I have a bet on Tony Ferguson by decision at plus 700 because I don't think he's going to finish Patty if he wins because Patty is, you know, people can say what they want about him. The dude can take a shot. He is incredibly durable. He is very difficult to finish.

I think Patty will probably have the momentum at the end. Look, I don't know how that frigging fight's going to go. Like, Patty could just ice Tony in a round. And that wouldn't, like nothing would completely shock me here. So I don't know. I honestly have no clue

it's going to happen to that fight because Patty's been out for a while too and he was dealing with a pretty tough injury. Ankle surgeries, trying to get back, all that stuff. He's been out for a year since the Jared Gordon fighting

didn't look relatively great in that fight either. So I don't know. We'll see. All I want to see is Tony being, I want to see Tony just go out there and compete. I want to see him be competitive. Even if he loses,

I just want to, even if he gets finished the third round. If he has like a just a super fun fight and loses, I'm okay with that. Like, it won't break my heart. The Chandler fight broke my heart because of how the way that friggin

fight ended, but he did have a good first round and I know people fall into this trap too. We're like, oh, he did this. He did this in his last fight. You listen to No Best Bard. The Bobby Green fight, you know, you just, the Bobby Green fight, he lands a shot. I don't think it was technically a knockdown

going back and rewatching that. I know a lot of be like, oh, he dropped Bobby Green. I think Bobby just kind of was off-balanced more than anything. But you just saw that fight go downhill real quick for Tony, and you just knew that this is just a mercy type of thing. We're just waiting for the referee to come in and stop this freaking fight in any way because Tony's just getting dusted up by Bobby. So I just don't want to see a fight where Tony has like a good three minutes,

and then Patty just obliterates him. Just give me two exciting rounds where it's going to. kind of close and then whatever happens in round three like i can live with that you know what i mean i would like to see uh patty just beat the absolute soul out of tony ferguson i we need to be done with this like we i know that everyone is talking themselves into it tony most of all we need to recognize that at some point your number is called and that's just it and this game is unforgiving, but it happens to the best fighters of all time. And maybe if Patty Pimble, who no one respects, goes out there and just lays wood to him for as long as it takes,

maybe Tony will wake up and realize, man, it's not Gagons. Like, it's not a lack of effort that is getting me here. Because the Gagins thing is the weirdest thing to me, be like, yeah, I got to say, I said this on No Bet's Bar, of all the people in the hidden, of this sport who I would be like, you know what will turn their fortunes around? Working real hard with David Goggins, Tony's last on the list. That is not what has been ailing Tony Ferguson. Effort and kind of psychopathic training has not been the problem for Tony. So like doing more of that isn't going to make any difference here.

Like it's just time. And I know that fighters and identity are really complicated. horrible subject, but bro, it's just it's just done. You had a great career at a great run. You're one of the best lightweights of all time. Yeah, Hall of Famer, one of the very best lightweights

who ever set foot in the cage. And Father Time comes for us all and when he comes, sometimes it's hard and fast and sucks ass for you. And unfortunately, you were one of those people. But I want to see the outcome that will get

Tony to quit doing this. Because I don't want to keep having this conversation every five month. I am done with it. I would like Tony to be done and move on to the next stage of his life. Yeah, he has to take a just a one-sided three-minute ass weapon for him to leave. If he has one good minute, if he has one good strike, that will be enough for him to get one more opportunity against whoever the step below Patty Pimlet is. I don't know. Chase Hooper

Chase Hooper Chase Hooper He'll fight Chase Hooper next Probably is actually what would happen And it's just like yeah man I'm serious I'm dead serious

If he gets one like strike on it Yeah one good take down Wins almost wins around He's coming back And he's fighting Chase Hooper And Chase Hooper Yeah You know

Because again it's the same things Tony fans And the same things Tony fans are telling themselves Like hey he won that round Against Michael Chandler Which he did And hey he looked okay against Nate Diaz

Until he sort of fell off which, okay, he did. And, you know, the Bobby Green headbutter, eye poke, or whatever it was, like, Tony can say and is saying all those same things to himself, because fighters cannot reckon with this part of the game. Very few of them have ever gone gracefully out of the sport. It has to be beaten into you. And if freaking Patty Pimbley goes and beats it into him,

maybe that is what will happen. And that's why I want it. I don't want ill things to happen to Tony Ferguson. but if he has if it's going to be worse for him if he sticks around longer this is just going to prolong in an awful way just get fucking nuked by patty pimble and let's be done with this what's been so weird about this fight is like the roller coaster ride it's been because when it was booked it was probably like the most polarizing matchmaking in the last five years like everybody had an opinion on it either they loved it or they hated it there was no gray area with it. And then with all the Ian Machado Gary stuff, it almost like didn't become like a low key fight, but it kind of did. Like people just kind of stopped forgetting about it. The whole storyline of the fight became Tony working with David Goggins. And I feel like this

week, I feel like with this press conference, it's going to get built up real quick. Like Tony and Patty at the media day, we're kind of getting after it a little bit. There's some social media blocking and weirdness going on between those two, but I think things are going to ramp up. And I think by the time we get to Saturday, I think this is the fight everyone's going to be talking about, maybe even more so of the main event. I think that's very likely just because of how big a star patty is and how beloved Tony is.

Both of them have the ability to talk in ways that nobody else on this card does, particularly with he and Gary out. Who's going to really be dominating the presser? Colby will say stuff, but most of it will seem real dumb. So, yeah, I think there's a very, very high chance of that's true. And if he still consists on fighting, let's just send him out the hardest way possible. Dustin Poirier needs somebody at UFC 300. Dustin Pornier versus Tony Ferguson, just do it.

I think I'm going to say, like, Ben Wossot to need Tony Ferguson. I mean, that's more what the UFC would opt to do because of the way that they particularly go about things. But let's let Poree do it. They've never fought. This would be fine. How should the UFC be handling Tony Ferguson outside of just not give him a fight? Just say you're done. I would have a proper goodbye.

I would have cut him from his contract. Just no retirement. No retirement. So I would have done the Nate Diaz fight. I would have been a planned fight as opposed to how it sort of came to the other ramshackle. And that would have been, hey, if you win this fight, we can talk about it. But if you lose where we're going to exit your contract. Because of how that shook out, Bobby Green would have been his, well, I will not say a retirement fight because I do not think it is on the organization to foist retirement onto a fighter.

It's how he makes his living. And if you are, yeah, his exit from the UFC because look, I think Tony should retire, but it's his life. And he gets to make that call and I'm fine with him making that decision about his own life. But if I were the UFC, I would no longer be involved in this. Bobby Green would have been the, hey, this is it. If you get, you know, if things go poorly like they have been, we're going to exit you from your contract and you can go, you know, do whatever else you want. And that's fine with us, but we are not going to continue doing this.

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At these prices Could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering, start gifting Winners find fabulous for less Let's talk about The best fight on the actual main card Because no one's asking any questions about it I feel like people are overlooking

the Royval of Panthosha fight. Everyone's overlooking this fight. Everyone is. In general. I think there are a lot of good reasons for that though. I mean, we did watch this fight 18 months ago and it went very clearly one direction. I'm not saying the same thing that happened. I was a little bit sold by Brandon Reval on the MMA hour yesterday talking about this fight and sort of what he learned from the first matchup and sort of how that helped him grow and realize that. You know, I'm paraphrasing, but his quote is, I just sort of always thought I could win every shootout because I'm so dangerous that if I can get guys

to get into shootouts with me, then I've already won the fight. And then I realized against Pantosia that, oh, actually, that's not going to work. He can also win this shootout. So, you know, if he brings a different style, a different way of being to this fight, it can be really interesting.

I mean, he's got a lot of tools. I have, I don't think that's, when the bullets are flying, you are who you are. You're just going to be the guy you are deep down inside. And the guy Brandon Royval is deep down inside is an absolute lunatic. And so that's awesome. And it's going to make this really exciting for how long it lasts. But Pantosia is the superior scramble grappler.

And in that situation, he's going to get to the dominant positions. He's going to finish the fight. I love Brandon Royval as a fighter. He's a must-see TV. I liked him in LFA. I was doing interviews with that. him well before he's with UFC. Just a fascinating guy.

Every conversation him and I have turns into like a fighter therapy session where I'm just so fascinated about what goes through his mind because he is such a lunatic in there. And one of the things he told me after the Pantosia loss was Mark Montoya would make him stay sort of like after class. And he would he would set up like a sort of like a line, just kind of like a lap around the gym, almost like a maze. and he made Royval like walk it, like really slowly walk the line.

And it was like, if you ever watched Oz, it was like the mind maze in Oz that Tim, the CEO director put together where dude just kind of walk in this maze and they collect their thoughts. And Mark Montoya would watch Brandon Royval go around.

And as he got better at it, Royval would like continue to speed up at the end of it. And Mark Motoy would be like, why are you going so fast? Because see, this is what you do. You just want to finish things as fast you can as opposed to taking your time and really thinking about it. And Mark just made

him walk around this line, like this maze in the gym, which is basically just like a chalk line. And Brandon just like couldn't get through it by just walking. He just started to get faster and faster and faster. So they worked on that for so long until he could actually get through it without getting faster and speeding up in his walk,

which is freaking insane. I love that tactic. So I am super curious about this fight. I'm curious to see if Royval could be a little more polished, like a little more 2023 Justin Gaci as opposed to like 2016 Justin Gagy-ish. Like I'm super intrigued by this fight, but Pantosia has been so good. It's been so good. I love this fight. It's going to be absolute madness for as long as it lasts. Here are my two questions about this fight, right? What does that even look like?

What does a like disciplined Brandon Royval look like? Because I honestly am not sure that I know what that looks. Like, it's just so anathema to who he is and how he competes. And it might be awesome. Like, maybe it's just really, really good. But I just don't know. And then on the other side of it, I am genuinely interested to see how Pentosia looks with the belt. Because the old adage is you get 20% better when you become the champion, right? Like, that's a thing.

At the same time, that was such a cathartic win for Pantosia that I don't, like, the way, remember he won the belt and all of that happened? Daddy, are you proud of me now? I'm like, all of that is that, is he going to come down to earth a little from that? Like, has he achieved the thing and now maybe lose a little bit of focus,

particularly in a rematch with the dude that he dusted up not long ago. So, uh, super interesting storylines of play here. And the fight will be sick. But I do ultimately think this probably just looks like the first one. So it makes sense for it to kind of get overlooked in that regard. AK's reaction is going to be incredible if Brian Roy Val wins.

He called it. He said 2023 on our prediction show, 2023 is going to be the year of the raw dog. I hope he does. It would be way cool with brand new revolve wins. As far as just pure fighting action, this is the fight I'm so looking forward to. Yeah.

This is easily the best in cage product that probably happened this week. Yeah. And that's a hard story for the UFC to sell. It's like, oh, just two really good fighters. See, but they're very small. They're very small fighters. Just move the camera closer, so they feel bigger, that's all. If they, if there are betting lines.

Incredible maneuver. I mean, if there are batting lines on fight of the night, this would be the favorite right now, I would have to say. This has to be. Easily, it wouldn't even be close. Maybe Lucke Gary could have been, but with that gone. Now, if you talk Louke Holland, that's also going to be a heater. But we should, I mean,

that's the best idea I've ever heard, Casey. Just all flyweight in Bannonweight fights are filmed below the fighters. Yeah. Like, I think you can do the camera over the cage for everybody else, but you've got to find a way to get the up angle for flyweight fights. And then now we're cooking. This is kind of a, like, not a secret, but like, that's why, to me, from a visual perspective, smaller guys in boxing don't look as small,

because the cameras are eye level, not above the cage, for the most part, when you're shooting from the corner. So smaller guys just don't look as small. But the way all cage fighting is shot, everything is shot slightly down. So smaller guys look smaller. What else we got? Question. What fight gets moved up to the main card?

I think Josh Emmett versus Bryce Mitchell gets moved up. I don't know. I don't think so. I think they need that. I think they keep this fight there for words that. Yeah. Maybe you do Cody and Keller. I think they put Cody and Kelleher because I think they always want like a sort of marquee lead-in fight to the main card.

And Emmett Mitchell is that for them. I think they would move Cody Kelleher up. It's a former Bannon Way champion. Super easy to do. And usually, and Emmett Mitchell is the main event on the prelims, right? Yeah. Correct. Yeah, they never moved that one because, and it's just a TV thing, because I,

promise you they've made promo packages and everything yeah and longer ones too not just like little and yeah and graphics and stuff it's just it's a pain in the ass to do yeah so don't don't yeah uh garbren that makes all the sense yeah what about um i know they usually don't do this like it's very rare they do they don't even really do this on fight night cards but what if they did kisi o'neal r and elypsky it would be fine i just i just i just i didn't just don't think that they would do i think it'd be more likely they'd do aldona hosa because al dana just for a title yeah only only way more fun it's definitely way more fun but i i i would be pretty shocked if it's not garbren keller it's for a band-in-way champion it's just

like the easiest thing in the world to do yeah and they's not doing anything in the prelims for them yeah and they're not going to put garbrand on esPN again because remember they did that last time when he fought Trevin Jones and that fight was bad. Oh yeah. That was a real bad fight. So. Yep. All right.

What else we got? Let's keep it going. Plus, Casey and his been a real for loss. I feel like they just won't do that. If Colby wins, is it him versus Strickland at UFC 300 as the super fight Dana was talking about? I friggin't hope not. I can't say no, but man, I want to say no. he could never discount what kind of weird insane stuff the UFC is going to opt to do these days

but that seems like the worst possible idea as far as I'm concerned is that a super fight though like is that like it's champion versus champion but that's my thing about super fights now like Jed you and I you are like the man who is captain the ship about just defending your title over and over again in your division which I people coming around people getting on board I love it I'm definitely co-captaining that. I have the shotgun seat now. I had to throw somebody out of there,

but I'm certainly there now. What the frig is a superfight now? Like heading into 2024, is Volcanowski Toporia an actual superfight compared to Volk versus Mokachev? Because, like, it's so much rarer to see a champion defending his belt against the next guy on. Like, that is more superfighters.

Like, what is a superfighter? That's what I want to know. Like what is Dana White and the UFC actually considering a super fight? I don't think this is a super fight. Like Connor versus like somebody could be, but it's got to be like even that. Like what is actually a superfight? Is it bringing like all time great? Like if they, I don't want this to happen.

I don't want this to happen. Is if they do GSP versus Anderson Silva at UFC 300, like the fight everybody always wanted but never got. Is that a super fight now? Would that be considered a super fight? That would be a super fight, yes. I mean, look, it's a super fight well past its expiration date, like well past it. But like, it's a Twinkie, you know? They never go bad.

It's fine. So that's, I would watch the hell out of that. I would be unreasonably excited for what is objectively not a very good fight anymore. I'm not saying this is going to happen. ESP has already been like, hey, I did. I'm not fighting. Don't worry. I'm not fighting.

But if they did that, that'd be super fun. It would be incredibly fun. They're going to consider anything with two belts a super fight, but no, this would be not a super fight by any other definition of the phrase. Like, it would just be a fight. I don't think they do it. I think it is more likely they do Connor Colby. But I just don't. I don't know what happens if Colby wins.

Like, I'm very, very unsure unless they just make him fight the law, which would be admittedly quite funny. But I just have no idea what they would do with him. Because I don't know what he will accept or won't accept. I mean, honestly, like, I think the timing of this fight actually could unweared this slightly because someone, I, I saw somebody screenshot this. I haven't actually looked at this myself,

but apparently on the UFC website for UFC 299, it's got O'Malley and Cheeto there, but it also has a TBD versus TBD there. At least that's what I saw in the screenshot. So maybe that's not. Colby headlining in Miami, could that, even if it's Belal,

could he do that? That would actually be really good idea. It would be a really good idea. He would fight Belaw in Miami, I think, just to fight on that card. You would certainly know more. about who we would fight. I think he would definitely fight in that card.

And I don't have to make a ton of sense. So it's good, it's a good solid idea. And I feel like, whoever, whoever is willing to take the fight and can. I do feel like over the last couple months, like the momentum and things needing to break for Balal have kind of happened.

Like little things along the way. Like even the, even the thing you mentioned about Ian Machado, Gary, that was one of the things I thought of heading in. Like this whole thing is brilliant. Because by the time he gets to the press conference, it's just going to be all about Ian. Everyone's just going to fire shots at Ian, every single person, except for maybe Patty.

Because they know each other from the Cage Warrior's days. But even that, maybe Patty takes shot. Like, Ian will be the focus of the press conference. And if he goes out there and dust Vicente Lucke, that's something you could think about in terms of, like, him jumping the line over anybody else. Because the momentum that kid's going to have following that would be gigantic. But now Gary not even fighting, that opens the door even a little bit for Bilal too. Literally, so many little things, comes up moving to 185.

That opened the door a little bit for Bilal. Like, just little things along the way have continued to open the door for Bilal just a little bit more. Now having this Miami card in March, with Colby wanting, at least he said this at the media day, he would want to headline that card. Maybe the timing works out. I don't know.

Good. Belal should do something cool on Saturday. Bekaged side in a way that is, memorable. Don't try and get into the cage to talk. I think that that would do that. Too ham-fisted. But find a way to make this a thing, you know.

Get into a run-in. Get into some kind of running with Colby and someone catch them on their cell phone. You don't want to see the cage face off? You'd rather him position on the sidelines going like. I would be fine with the cage face-off if the, if the UFC was going to get behind the fight, because then that's just how it goes. But I am deeply uncertain that they will, and I am fairly certain that either man in the main event

will not be looking to Bullall as their first option. So they aren't going to repost with him, but whatever, you know. Yeah, pull Michael Kiesa, just jump the rail, have security, get in your way. They escort you from the building, but at least like that's a cool vision of like, Bala trying to get something cooking, but he doesn't say a word.

I love that idea. Yeah, you got to do some way to make your presence felt this week. I'm not sure what it is, but you got to get out there. And yeah, things are breaking okay for him. Like, there's a chance here, but it feels real tenuous, man. Like, because if Shavkat just dumb, he's Wonderboy, I think he's in pole position. Remember where Belal was at, like, over the summer? The last time I talked to Colby was the,

the infamous John Anick line. That's when that happened when he was like, I'll go to Anix's house and beat him up or whatever he said. And Belal responded to that perfectly and did a real good job keeping that story going on, saying that he would go to Miami and

like find Colby. That was in April, right? So that was actually like a kind of an interesting thing that was happening there. And there was actually a little momentum being like, hey, you know what? Maybe the UFC will actually make this fight. Instead, if like Mazadol beat Gilbert Burns.

Like maybe Belaw gets his wish and then time goes by and like narratives change so quickly in this sport. You should try to force his way onto the broadcast team and just be like DC, let me let me get that headset from you, my man. Let me get let me get in there with a panic and let me start chopping up about these two bumps. Belani's just just rushed up, not rushed a press conference, but the post presser whoever's whenever Leon or Colby's doing his postpressor thing. should definitely be in the room being that room and just go raise your hand do that Ryan Bader

thing you know whatever Ryan Bader and a Cormier or James Tony did this that's how James Tony got a freaking fight in Louis Palomino you mean what Louis Palomino oh yeah maybe not do that that did not work out well

for Ryan Bader that really didn't that was a tough tough scene I don't know I mean so it didn't work out well for him but I still I remember that now forever

I will remember remember it forever. I want the easiest fighting division. Give me Ryan Bader. If Colby if Colby gets on he's on the dais and he's saying that pointing at it, give me the easiest fight, Dan, give me the

easiest fight. Then that's, it still gets his name out there. Give me that's not the Dodd Chady John Caliperi thing from when John Calipari was the coach of UMass basketball and John Cheney was the coach of Temple and he just stormed in Calamari's press conference and said

I'm gonna kick your ass John. I'm a kick your That was like the viral moment of like the early 90s in college basketball. So yeah. I mean, just Blah just needs to do something interesting here. He can't. He needs a brief outburst. That's it.

Just a, Leon's up there. Leon, no one gives a shit about you going to middle weight. I mean, if Leon wins, he should have bars set. Because that's what I would.

I would be like, Belaw, get at me. I got you, buddy. Like, so you spent years complaining, and bitching about how you weren't getting your fair shake and your fair shot and now you hold

the belt and you're just going to do the exact same thing to me. That's bullshit. Nobody gives up about you going up to fight a middleweight giving my title shot. And like that's it. You're heated with Leon right there. I just love how this is just pro wrestling. Occasionally they fight, but otherwise it's just pro wrestling. All things are pro wrestling.

Casey, that's what we learn as we get older. And people hate to hear that too. Oh, they hate it. This is all like it's a storyline driven. sport. This is what the UFC is. This is why the UFC is so successful. This is why PFL is not the co-leader. Because they don't have any like stories. Storylines right now. Their best storyline is who is Francis going to box next? And he's not even, like, not even fighting for them right now. Yeah. Like that's the most interesting thing right now.

Oh, Colby's trickling. It'd be great because of all the trash talk. Yeah. Because you like pro wrestling people. You just want to see promos. I got to tell you that that would not be great because of all the trash talk it would be pretty bad Colby is an objectively horrific trash talker I love it I kind of love the more time he gets on the mic and the more he misspeaks it's it's funny it's unintentionally funny

which is not he he never figured it's so shocking how he could never figure it out because it's not that hard Like he's just doing chale But without the knowing wink to it And so it's just bad And also poorly executed So it's just

It's not that tough You should be better at this at this stage Does Usman get a rematch If Colby wins Maybe Where is where is Karmuisman in this whole situation He's footing Colby over If Colby wins

Comor Usman might be the dude Maybe I'm talking about this But like it's right there that would be so awful it would be so bad because then if when Usman wins again

then Leon will be like well run it back I beat him twice so we'll spend the next two years with the same three dudes two of whom are old and not the best anymore and just be like

all right so Shafka just has to beat up everyone until he finally gets his day oh it's every outcome that Colby wins is so much worse please Leon please do the thing. Let's see.

Chad, your hair is, your hair is being admired here. Oh, thank you. No, this is, no comment about my hair,

freshly cut. This is, this is me not showering this morning, so. All right. Um, do,

do, we have time for like two or, maybe two more. I won't, we have time forever. I got nothing going on. Uh, will we see Jim Miller?

on the UFC 300 card and versus who. Yes, we will see Jim Miller on the UFC 300. Even Dana. Guaranteed. It confirmed it. Yeah. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who he fights. But if you had to guess.

I think Jim Miller could break his leg on fight week and he would still fight. Like, I honestly think that this is the thing that would happen. So, like, I'll just go in. I'll figure it out. Like, I don't know. Find somebody else with crutches and just do like a crutch fight. Love that. Just limp his way out there and just be like, all right,

M&R rolls, baby. Let's go. I want to bring him up, but would Jim Miller, Tony Ferguson be the perfect double retirement fight if Tony doesn't retire? I like that idea. It seems to make sense. It just makes a lot of sense. I've been pushing a lot for Dustin Porier. Because Porier says he wants to fight at 300.

I think Poirier-Jemillers makes total sense. If you disregard the fact that Porier is like a top five lightweight because we should because he's not going to defend the position. Like he's basically said so himself. then just let him fight dudes who have been around there are cool the first fight with jimiller was deeply competitive and fun run that back at 300 yeah jim miller's not going to beat the soul out of tony ferguson and get him to leave i need people who are just going to absolutely tar and feather this man until he cannot talk himself into coming back anymore he asked me that's harsh but that's just the world like that's just the world they're in

guys. That's how we got where we were with BJ. Again, I lived this. I know this experience, y'all. All right, one more. We'll go one more. One more. There you go.

Last one. We will have a preview show tomorrow, by the way. What is the headline they will write on Sunday morning about UFC 296? So what will be, I'll rephrase this, Jed. What will be the talking poll? will be the topic of conversation that we will spend the most time on on the post-fight show after this event, in your opinion. I'm going to go with is Shavka Rakhmanov next for Leon Edwards? Because I think both of them are going to win.

I think Leon's going to try and shift this narrative to the middleweight thing. Like that is the reports have come out that he intends to do that. That's just not going to gain any steam. I truly don't think anyone at all cares about that. And I expect Shavkat to be very impressive. And so it's one of those things. When two dudes in the same weight class kind of near each other in the perceived rankings and conversation perform well, hey, are these two dudes going to fight next?

And I think we're ready to be there with Shavkot and Leon gets a good win. I think that would be my pick. if I had to guess. What do you think, Casey? I'm actually 100% of Jed. I was thinking that too. Shopcott, you know, I'm predicting shopcott to win big. I'm predicting Edwards to win big.

And, yeah, and that's, is that, is that the fight we're going to get? And a lot of, you know, poor, poor Bala. Yeah, be like, well, is that the fire we're going to get or is Balaal's done enough? Like, what about Bala? And stuff. So it's going to be basically who, who Leon choose. I get the whole middleweight thing. I don't want to talk about that.

Yeah. Who's he going to fight next at middleweight? Yeah, what's her weight? I just don't think we're going to have to talk about that. I think the UFC is going to no-sell the middle-weight thing because they should because no-one cares. Just no one cares. I think Leon told Damon, and I didn't listen to the MA hour conversation because it was my day off.

But I think he told Damon that he clarified it and was like, I'm not asking for it right now, but in the future, I don't know if it's just like a turn. Maybe you saw the reaction to him. It was like, maybe this wasn't the best idea. I will go with... I'm going to play the odds here. I'm going to play the odds. Shaheen Al-Shadi is going to be on the post-fight show.

This will be Paddy Ferguson. We'll get the most time. I thought for a brief moment, you were going to shout out your best friend and be like, welcome to the year of the raw dog. Could be that. Yeah. You're probably correct.

If Tony Ferguson wins, I think that's going to be the biggest thing coming out of this. When he doesn't, because he won't, it'll just be a sadder conversation about like, well, seven in a row, six by finish or whatever the number is.

Stuff. AK will be on the watch party. for Ferguson versus Pimblit since this is all his fault that this fight is happening. So he will be on, he will be on for that fight, and that will be the only guest for the entire watch party. Only guest. That's it. That's it.

Just AK for that fight. And then G.C. and I and our incredible holiday sweaters in the festive set. Is this a surprise Santa guess? Is that what's happening? Secret Santa? No, because we're just going to, but the screen gets a little too crazy. You know what I mean? Because we have, especially with the bats and stuff,

it gets a little too, you know, a little too bogged down. You know, plus we just want to, we want to watch these fights. You know what I mean? Like these fights, got to get the guests in the studio. That would be cool. That would be cool. Got to get the guests in studio.

That's the move. UFC 300, we might have to figure something out. Because apparently if they book, it all depends on when they book UFC 300. Because if they book UFC 300 in April on a specific weekend, Again, like G.C. is not even going to be able to do it because he's got like multiple weddings to attend. G.C. and I talked about this off air a little back. It's like, yeah, that's, look, I'm here. I'm ready. Ah, that'd be sick. That'd be sick. We'll figure it out. I think we're good. You can hit the music, Casey. Don't worry. There's going to be a lots more stuff happening with M.AFighting.com. We got two press conferences today.

I can't believe we got zero questions about like every other. on this call, by the way. Because they're all good. They're all good. We'll have coverage of the Jake Paul, Andrea August press conference, not press conference, the way-ins.

I'll be there for that ceremonial way-ins. So only one press conference. Tomorrow we'll have the way-in show, preview show, another press conference ceremonial way-ins Saturday. We get after it. UFC two-dine six.

Three-star card. Thank you for watching. Good night, everybody. Love y'all. This has been between, the links, an MMAT fighting production on the Vox Media Network.